Programs with Speakers

RIAGE Offers Programs with Speakers

RIAGE presented Kathi Kearney of the Gifted Development Center in Denver, CO as our Special Guest Speaker. Kathi spoke about Leta Hollingworth, her research with gifted children in the early 1900s, and the relevance of her findings for gifted children in school today.

Dr. Deirdre Lovecky, Ph.D., Director of the Gifted Resource Center of New England was RIAGE’s Special Guest Speaker. Dr. Lovecky’s talk “The Twice Exceptional Gifted Child” was about gifted children who have learning disabilities, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, or other behavioral or mental health disorders.

Wenda Sheard, attorney, teacher, and mother of three gifted children,
was RIAGE’s Special Guest Speaker in May 2007. Sheard’s talk “Out-of-the-Box Strategies” was about strategies used by wise schools and parents to meet the emotional and educational needs of gifted children. The out-of-the-box ideas included multiple ways to bypass educational gold-standards such as the curriculum, the grade level, the diploma, the textbook, and even the teacher. Some of the ideas included hobby immersion, school-as-smorgasbord, student-created curricula, and theo-therapy. In an effort to equip participants to advocate successfully for out-of-the-box programming ideas, the presentation included hints on how to best use social and emotional arguments to win what’s best for individual children.

Dr. Edward Marra, Superintendent in the Bristol-Warren School District, was the featured speaker at the RIAGE meeting on January 31, 2008 at the East Bay Collaborative in Warren, RI.  He spoke about meeting the needs of children with above-grade-level abilities in school.

Nancy Surgenor, Director of Admissions, at The SAGE School in Foxboro, MA discussed educating and accomodating gifted students in a school dedicated to educating gifted children at the RIAGE meeting on March 27, 2008 in East Providence, RI.