To read what people are saying about:

The Gifted Development Center

Consultations with Our Staff

Presentations from Our Speakers

Books from Members of Our Staff

Please click on any of the links above. Thank you!

The Gifted Development Center

For the first time I felt understood by someone else. I am not a test taker, or quiz writer. I don't have the fancy degrees, or the million $ home. Yet I am able to impact my world with uniquness and creative abilities. You seem to respect those qualities.
Linda

I have one simple recommendation...contact the Gifted Development Center in Denver (Dr. Linda Silverman). She understands gifted, LD, visual spatial learners.........she covers the spectrum. After Dr. Silverman reads the forms and you first meet her you'll feel as if she has known you your entire life and she will tell you volumes about your child (including information about your child you hadn't included on your forms).

Understand that while there are several very knowledgeable people in these fields.........there is none that has the experience, background, or research that Dr. Silverman does. Her most important quality/expertise is her passion for caring about these children and their families. If your child needs auditory, visual or other additional testing she has experts to administer the proper tests.

I don't usually post here, but I just had to write about the success I have had with my 8 year old son. At the beginning of the school year he was getting a D in spelling and struggling to spell phonetically. After some research I came to the conclusion that he is a visual- spatial learner. We started using Linda Silverman's technique "A Visualization Approach to Spelling" on www.visualspatial.org. IT WORKS!!!!! He is now getting an A in spelling and just zips through learning his spelling words each week - no more struggles. Now on to the reading techniques.. .

Consultations with Our Staff

In the over 2 years that we have worked with the GDC, I never cease to be amazed at the depth and breadth of your knowledge and understanding of a much misunderstood special population. As I told you, I truly wonder....where would we be without you??
Lauren

I just wanted to say thanks for all your help and suggestions! It's amazing to  me that I have been to multiple doctors... Psychiatrists,Psychologists,Neurologists and Pediatricians  for 6 years now to try and get some help for J, not to mention the thousands of dollars we have spent trying to get some answers and after a 1 hour phone conversation with you I feel like I FINALLY have some answers! 
Pam

Presentations from Our Speakers

Your training and presentation created quite the buzz here. I just wanted to let you know that everywhere I go people are telling me that they attended one of your presentations this past week. Linda (Silverman), your career must afford you great satisfaction in knowing that you help so many.
Anne


The Right Tool for the Job (by Allie Golon)-- your words have saved my life!!! Please excuse my ranting on, but I really do feel so strongly about the article of yours (that I may have laminated for his teachers) it is so unbelievably accurate.  The part about the childs bedroom was just not funny.  I thought that maybe you had a web cam into Jake's room!
Jane

The things I learnt at your presentation I did not know before. It helped me understand why I,m bad at maths. It made me feel special. Thank you for helping me realize who I truly am from Callum. (Attendee of the children's workshop, If You Could See the Way I Think, by Allie Golon, in Melbourne, Australia.)

Left with a headache from information overload on Saturday. :0) I feel like I've been given a gift. I now understand my son, daughter, myself and my husband so much better. (Attendee of Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids presentation by Allie Golon.)
Shelley

I just wanted to thank you again so much for your willingness to come speak with our students. I know that our students truly enjoyed hearing from you!

The work you do is so inspiring and much needed! It's people such as yourself that are making this world an okay place to be, amidst the seemingly increasing negativity, especially in the educational field and working with our youth. (Coordinator of presentation by Bobbie Gilman.)

Books from Members of Our Staff

Testimonials from readers of Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner

I just read Linda Silverman's observations on visual-spatial learners and  was floored by the accuracy of her opinions. My son, who happens to be one of these types of learners, exhibited all the tendencies she spoke about. It's helpful for me to see patterns in behaviors of like children because it explains why things are the way they are with my child.
Stacey

Your book has given me so much information that I feel ready to explode. My emotions range from relief to knowing he is not alone to anger that he is 12 and we are just now realizing how he learns best... The world needs to learn about these VSLs. It should be mandatory that all teachers read your book and learn how to identify these children at a young age so that intervention can begin immediately. I feel vindicated, as a mother, to know that my gut feelings about my child(ren) were right, but now I want to make sure they gets the education they deserves and quickly!!
Beth


THANK YOU for your book, it has made me very happy because it has cleared up a lot of things that have driven me crazy throughout my life.
Ian

I cannot imagine going through all this without your Upside Down Brilliance book. Although C is certainly not an extreme VSL, he does have characteristics and I allowed him to read the book as well. I think it helped him immensely to know he was not the only one who thinks like this.
Cathy

Testimonials from readers of Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy that Works

The definitive manual on gifted advocacy, this book takes parents and teachers from documenting a child’s abilities to providing reasonable educational options year by year. The necessity for daily accommodations in regular instruction (not just enrichment pull-outs) is emphasized by the children themselves—in case studies and their own accounts. Learn about the problems and solutions for gifted students: *The Experience of Giftedness *What Do We Mean by "Gifted"? *Testing Considerations *Curriculum and Instruction *Underachievement: When a Child is Too Advanced for the Educational Program *Underachievement: Gifted Children With Learning Disabilities or Other Deficits *Successful Programs for Gifted Students *Models of Advocacy for Parents *Teachers of the Gifted *Charter Schools *Planning Your Child’s Program Year By Year.

We were fortunate to have Bobbie do the testing on our son because the results led to extraordinary, one-of, accommodations being granted at the superintendent level of our school board; and for our daughter, which led to a perfect placement for her as a gifted & LD child who now thrives in a gifted program with a long list of essential accommodations developed through the assessment process.

For the parents, the next best thing to Bobbie doing the testing is Bobbie's book to guide your decisions on assessment and advocacy issues. What you get is her insider's view of the practical nitty-gritty of which assessment and what to advocate for. The writing is often gripping: her personal experience of raising a gifted child who gave up on school, at least temporarily; the penetrating insights of gifted youth, Quinn O'Leary; the haunting excerpts from the writings of other affected children, to name three narrative threads that run through the text.
Ken

Testimonials from readers of Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child

I just wish that this entertaining advocate for perplexed parents and teachers of visual-spatial learners had been available decades ago. We’ve lost too many bright children to restrictive educational systems…sigh….
Elizabeth

Testimonials from readers of If You Could See the Way I Think: A Handbook for Visual-Spatial Kids

Your book is wonderful. Thank you so much for presenting our delightful children in such a positive light. It is informative and reassuring for VSL's be so well described and celebrated. My son loved the book, delighted in the pictures, and gives it "two thumbs up".
Elizabeth G.

We received your handbook yesterday...Allie, I can't thank you enough....
Anna

She's read "Upside Down Brilliance " and "Topsy Turvy Kids " and says they have helped her SO MUCH as a teacher. They've explained kids to her that no one has ever been able to explain before. She has been looking for activities for these kids and ways to explain to them (the kids themselves) about the VSL style. She's so excited about the workbook!!! She can hardly wait for it to arrive!
Anonymous

Your book just arrived in the mail today - and I am in tears.  I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I was thrilled to see that you signed it personally, but even more excited when I was leafing through it.  You do not even know what this is going to mean to my daughter (the epitome of bookworm, by the way) to have a book directed towards her with resources for her struggles.   Something at her fingertips which directly shows her she is understood.
Jennifer

Testimonials from readers of I Can't See It! A Visual-Spatial Approach to Language Arts

I ordered your e-book I can't see it!  last month and found it most informative.  I teach children with dyslexia and ADHD and I have been using many of your strategies.  They work like a charm! 
Educational Consultant in South Africa

Testimonials from readers of Counseling the Gifted & Talented