Programs for Parents

Keynote Session

The Whole Child & the Balance of Being - Tracy Inman, Ed.D.
A gifted child is a child first. Too much focus on the gift may lead to anxiety, alienation, underachievement, and more. So how can we provide balance? How can we address the needs of the whole child? The National Association for Gifted Children established a task force to answer those exact questions.

Breakout Session I (choose one topic)

• The Age of Anxiety - Tracy Inman, Ed.D.
  Anxiety. Stress. Angst. Like everyone, people with gifts and talents can struggle socially and emotionally. With the gifted learner’s propensity towards intensity, however, these issues can be heightened, even debilitating, affecting the entire family. This session explores practical ways to ease anxiety and healthy suggestions for lowering stress.
• The Social & Emotional Development of Giftedness: What Do We Know? - Jann Leppien, Ph.D. 
  Because of characteristics associated with giftedness (e.g., sensitivity, intensity, perceptiveness, overexcitabilities, advancement in certain talent areas, advanced moral development) some children experience their social and emotional development quite differently than others. These characteristics may contribute to challenges they face with age peers, siblings, and in the home and school environments. It is important that families be informed about the affective development of these students and aware of strategies to provide for their positive growth. Come join us for an interactive conversation!
• Intentional Grandparenting - Margo Long
  Parents of gifted children and youth have resources available to them both in school and in the community. However, there is an often overlooked resource in the family itself—grandparents. Parents can encourage interaction between grandchildren and grandparents by sharing information related to the grandchildren’s special interests and their school’s educational programs with grandparents. The more information grandparents have about their grandchildren, the better they can plan rewarding and enjoyable enrichment experiences with them. Grandparents play a major role in helping gifted children appreciate the long view–how peers change, how important education is, and that one can largely determine one’s role in the world. In this session, many wise suggestions and strategies for being successful in this role will be shared.

Breakout Session II (choose one topic)

• So Many Questions! How About Some Answers? - Tracy Inman, Ed.D.
  Raising a child is very challenging – add an exceptionality (like giftedness), and the challenge is multiplied. Where can a care giver go to get answers to their many questions? This session explores the rich resources provided by the National Association for Gifted Children as well as other organizations and experts. Answers are just a few clicks away.
• Intentional Grandparenting (repeat session) - Margo Long
  Parents of gifted children and youth have resources available to them both in school and in the community. However, there is an often overlooked resource in the family itself—grandparents. Parents can encourage interaction between grandchildren and grandparents by sharing information related to the grandchildren’s special interests and their school’s educational programs with grandparents. The more information grandparents have about their grandchildren, the better they can plan rewarding and enjoyable enrichment experiences with them. Grandparents play a major role in helping gifted children appreciate the long view–how peers change, how important education is, and that one can largely determine one’s role in the world. In this session, many wise suggestions and strategies for being successful in this role will be shared.
• Supporting & Nurturing Talent: What Families Can Do - Jann Leppien, Ph.D. 
  How do we support the development of talent in our children? Parents and family members play a crucial role in the awakening of latent talents and developing interests through experiences they provide their children at home, through community involvement, and when provided opportunities to work with others who share in mutual areas of interest or strengths. Talent can appear in any form, but most important it requires the recognition and support of caring adults if it is to develop to its fullest. It is also important to realize that the recognition of a child’s strengths or interests can be used to scaffold learning when challenges are present, serve as a “bridge” to areas of academic difficulty, and provide enhanced motivation for learning. This session will present strategies for how families can arrange and facilitate their child’s talents.
• Parenting the Perfectionistic Gifted Child - Timothy Stambaugh, Ph.D. 
  Perfectionism can be a challenge for gifted students, their teachers and their parents. The heavy pressure to be exactly right and to do so quickly can create unwinnable situations for families, but there is good news! This session will provide families with practical options to face perfectionism and reduce the intensity that it creates. We will discuss options for parents and students to use in many different settings to maintain high quality work while feeling less overwhelmed.

Featured Speakers

• Jann Leppien, Ph.D.
  Jann H. Leppien is Professor Emerita from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. She is the former Margo Long Chair in Gifted Education and program director for graduate programs in gifted education (2013-2021). Her professional experience includes serving as a research associate at the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, working as an elementary and middle school teacher, and coordinating gifted education services K-8. She conducts professional development training for educators in the areas of differentiated instruction, curriculum design and assessment for advanced students, thinking skills, and gifted program development, both nationally and internationally. She has served on the board of the National Association for Gifted Children and Washington State Gifted Advisory Board, and currently serves on the board for the 2E Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy in Studio, City, CA, NAGC’s Leadership Committee, and President of Edufest, a non-profit organization that is in its 25^th year of providing educators with training in gifted education in Boise, Idaho. She is the coauthor of the Multiple Menu Model: A Practical Guide for Developing Differentiated Curriculum and The Parallel Curriculum: A Design to Develop High Potential and Challenge High-Ability Students and series editor for content-related curriculum based on this design model.
• Margo Long
  Associate Professor Emerita, Margo Long served as an associate professor of education and supervisor of secondary-level education students for the School of Education at Whitworth University. She founded and directed the Center for Gifted Education & Professional Development. Long’s specialty areas are exploring the social and emotional issues of giftedness and using principles of instruction to facilitate student learning. As an educational consultant and training instructor in the Pacific Northwest, Long’s repertoire includes keynote addresses to school districts, education groups and gifted education organizations, as well as workshops and training sessions for the teaching and health professions and the business sector. Some of her presentations include Teaching the Underachiever, Strategies for Teaching Bright Children in the Regular Classroom, dealing productively with changes and choices, pathways to excellence, time/stress management, and learning to cope with uncertainty and the future.
• Tracy Inman, Ed.D.
  Tracy Inman has devoted her career to meeting the needs of young people, especially those who are gifted and talented. She has taught on both the high school and collegiate levels as well as in summer programs for gifted and talented youth. Now a consultant, she previously served as associate director of The Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University. Inman has presented on the state, national, and international levels; trained thousands of teachers in differentiation and gifted education; published multiple articles and books including three TAGT Legacy Award winners, and worked with hundreds of parents. She has served in multiple parenting roles in NAGC including PECAB chair, Parent & Community Network chair, PHP Advisory Board chair, PHP author, co-editor of NAGC’s award-winning parent service publication, and co-author of NAGC’s ebook on parent organizations. She has also been appointed to multiple task forces. Inman currently serves on the board of The Association for the Gifted Board, a division of CEC, is past-president of her state gifted association, and chair of her state’s gifted foundation board. She is the mother of two gifted young men, including one who is twice-exceptional.
• Timothy Stambaugh, Ph.D., LMHC
  Tim Stambaugh has nearly 30 years of experience as a clinical counselor in community mental health and private practice settings. He specializes in working with academically gifted children and adolescents who are facing anxiety and depression symptoms and the complications of perfectionism. He currently works at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.