Advocating for Your Twice-Exceptional Child with the School System

Gifted and Thriving Signature Series Live Webinar (with Recording) Presents:

"A Parent's Toolbox: Advocating for Your Gifted/Twice-Exceptional Child Within the School System - Know Your Rights!"

Two Part Session: Part 1 -Thursday, January 21st 8 PM EST (5 PM PDT); Part 2 - Thursday, February 4th 8PM EST (5 PM PDT)

Join Dr. Mike Postma, along with special guests Bobbi Gilman, Associate Director of the Gifted Development Center and experienced and long time gifted educator, Kathi Kearney, as they share the latest information on school resources for supporting twice-exceptional (2e) children

Know Your Rights!!

You will learn and understand what IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Federal Legislature that was passed in 2004 is and how it impacts gifted/twice-exceptional students.

You will also learn how to get a proper diagnostic assessment for your gifted/2e child and how to develop and build a more effective IEP/504 plan with your school administration staff and teachers.

Very importantly, you will learn and understand how the traditional diagnostic assessments typically do not accommodate and properly diagnose twice-exceptional students and learn how to adjust for these differences so you can better advocate for your children.

Practical Solutions from Gifted/2e Educators, Therapists

Join Dr. Mike Postma, along with special guests child therapist and diagnostic assessment expert, Barbara (Bobbi) Gilman and gifted educational teacher, Kathi Kearney as they share their experiences in providing assessments, developing 504/IEP plans and strategies and how to develop a strong plan of action and support to best advocate and serve your gifted/2e child within the school system.

Valuable Discussion from Live Webinar with Support Materials (including webinar recording) to Keep

Dr. Mike, Bobbi and Kathi will share their experience in 2 comprehensive sessions (January 21st and February 4th) over 2 hours of valuable and hands on information you can implement right away. They will conclude and then have open time for live Q&A for all participants (all questions will be answered!). In addition, you will have the webinar recording to keep for future along with extra handouts and support materials (including the 'infamous' Dr. Delisle Letter' to help you navigate in finding a supportive and productive learning environment for your gifted/2e child, teachers and family.

"In 2012, Dr. Dan Peters, Bobbie Gilman, Dr. Jim Delisle, and I met with the National Director for Special Education and the Assistant Secretary of Education in D.C. to advocate for 2e children especially in concerns with identification, support, etc. The result was a series of letters/guidelines including the infamous 'Letter to Delisle' that went out to every State Director of Ed. and Special Ed. Sadly, in the last 4 years, nothing has been done to enforce the guidelines. The bottom line: the letter called Districts to use comprehensive assessments and multiple data points (not just percentile cut off's) when addressing 2e kids for 504's or IEP's. Unfortunately, a lack of interest and funding has sidetracked the initiative from the past Federal Administration. However, it is hopeful in 2021 that with a new Federal Secretary of Education and the new educational regime ready to start in this new year, that there is hope improvement and change and more support will be coming that will help our more vulnerable students. We look forward to fighting and advocating in this next chapter with renewed energy, updated research and new resolve to make this change happen We continue to battle and we are with with you in the fight" - Dr. Mike

IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was passed in 2004 with the intent to assist lower performing children to 'raise' their performance levels. There were multiple issues with this legislation but the most obvious was the failure to address gifted and/or 2e children that also struggled in school settings with average or inconsistent performances. If identified, these students were subject to a 'deficit' based approach to remediation that only served to frustrate and, on occasion, morph into behavioral issues. Now, sixteen years later, the issues have compounded leaving parents of twice-exceptional children frustrated, confused, and desperate for solutions. This double session is designed to address this ongoing issue with advice on how to properly advocate for your twice-exceptional student within the school setting. You will learn:

1. What is IDEA and its far reaching implications

2. How to advocate for an IEP or 504 plans that serve to assist your child

3. What are the proper identification tools and models that need to be incorporated for real understanding of 2e

4. Appropriate strategies for educational and therapeutic accommodations

5. Proper advocacy skills.

6. Why 2e kids tend to struggle in school

Meet Dr. Mike

Hello! I'm Dr. Mike Postma, an educator, speaker, author, consultant and coach residing in beautiful Bellingham, WA. Together with my wife, Julie, we have raised our own 4 gifted/2e children and know how difficult this journey can be. That is one reason I have dedicated my life work to the holistic development of the gifted/2e community. I've served as a Gifted Teacher in the classroom, as an Administrator of gifted schools, as a professional developer of gifted programming and curriculum and as Executive Director of the SENG organization (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted), and now launching our brand new company Gifted & Thriving, LLC. I look forward to spending time together with you to learn how we can best teach and support this exceptional community so we can all move from a place of just surviving to THRIVING! I look forward to the journey with you!

Meet Kathi Kearney

Kathi Kearney, M.A. Ed., currently teaches gifted students in grades K-8 in Maine School Administrative District 51 in Cumberland, Maine. Kathi has worked with children for 43 years as a teacher and administrator in a wide variety of settings, urban and rural, in public, private, religious, and home schools, and has taught graduate level gifted education courses. She is a Past Chair of the Conceptual Foundations Network of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), and has contributed scholarly journal articles on such topics as assessment, twice-exceptionality, the highly and profoundly gifted, rural and distance learning, gifted African-Americans, and Leta Hollingworth’s pioneering work with the gifted in the 1920s and 1930s. Kathi helped conduct validation studies for the Stanford-Binet Fifth Edition for Riverside Publishing, and is currently working on a longitudinal follow-up study of rurally isolated gifted children, now in their late thirties, who were educated for three years in a full-time, self-contained rural elementary gifted education classroom. Kathi can be reached via e-mail at: [email protected]

Meet Bobbi Gilman

Barbara (“Bobbie”) Jackson Gilman, M.S. is Associate Director of the Gifted Development Center (GDC), directed by Linda Silverman, Ph.D., in Westminster, CO. Since 1991, Bobbie has
specialized in the assessment of gifted children at all levels of giftedness, with and without disabilities, for educational planning and advocacy. She consults with parents, makes educational recommendations, guides parents to explore co-existing weaknesses, and participates in research on the gifted and gifted assessment. Bobbie was SENG’s 2015 Healthcare Professional of the Year. After deciding her own sons “should have come with a
manual,” she has now written four. Her Gifted Minds Empowered: Developing Gifted Children’s Strengths is the 2020 Legacy Book winner and the textbook for GDC gifted advocacy classes
for parents and educators.