Is My Child Gifted? Trying to determine whether your child is gifted can be difficult; especially if it is your first child, as you have nothing really to measure against. Often it's other people, sometimes outside of the family, who will bring your child's talent to your attention. You may feel that your child is just simply a clever kid. Usually though, there will be tell tale signs and you'll notice that your child behaves in a different way pretty early on, even before he or she starts school. . .

Giftedness - Myths & Misconceptions The biggest myth about intellectually able kids is that they need no help what so ever in school! As they already seem to know it all, it's only their own laziness that stops them from achieving. Everything comes easier to them; they're assured a place of the top of the class. Their future is bright with no trouble sitting exams; they sail through both primary and secondary school and are assured a place at a top university doing the course of their choice! If only. School is a veritable mindfield for gifted kids and their parents. These children often struggle to fit in with both teachers and other pupils. . .

Getting Your Child AssessedWhy should you get your child assessed? Firstly, not all children need to be assessed educationally; however it's vital for those children who, for whatever reason, are struggling in school with the normal curriculum. The advice from the Department of Education and Science around psychological assessment for children is that parents should be informed by the school about any difficulties a child may have, well before it's necessary to bring an Educational Psychologist onboard. In their view supplementary teaching should be tried prior to any intervention. Sounds like good advice but the reality is that there is a lot of pressure on the average primary school teacher, especially with large, overcrowded classes of pupils with varying abilities and languages. Understandably it can be difficult for the teacher to flag a child's difficulties. . .

Advocacy in Action! What does Giftedkids.ie do? The Giftedkids.ie team is involved in two important projects at present. We launched our pilot webinar series on January 28th 2010 with "Characteristics of the Exceptionally Able – Faster, Earlier, Differently”, presented by Margaret Keane and Anna Giblin. Supported by Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and NCTE these webinars are free to teachers and parents and are run through the global educators’ network, Learncentral.org. The purpose of this series is to raise awareness of issues affecting exceptionally able and twice exceptional children amongst teachers, parents and the general public.

We have also run a highly successful 3D immsersive technology pilot project based in Carlow Gaelscoil. This project, MissionV, has proved so effective for the support of high potential learners that a new not for profit organisation has been established MissionV Education Limited to oversee its extension to 20 schools nationwide. The project was recently placed as First Runner Up in the Edublog Awards. and is supported by the National Centre for Technology in Education and DSE - Discover Science & Engineering. .

We also support Irish Centre for Talented Youth initiatives and projects and provide speakers on gifted issues on request.

2011 sees the launch of our new parent and teacher blog "Fidget Jones Diary", a frank and sometimes tongue in cheek look at the realities of parenting or teaching an exceptionally able or twice exceptional child in Ireland.