Advanced Development Journal proudly announces the release of Volume 11: Social Issues of the Gifted.

For more information, please click here!

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Linda Silverman, Director of the Gifted Development Center. Giftedness is my passion. Since high school, I've sought to understand the heart, the mind, and the Soul of the gifted person. I've spent nearly five decades trying to help others recognize, understand and support giftedness in their children, their students, their clients, their loved ones, and themselves.

What is giftedness all about? To me, it isn't a straight-A average or getting into an Ivy League college. It isn't the potential for a place in history or a six-figure salary. Certainly, people who rise to stardom in childhood or adult life are often gifted, but most gifted people do not seek or achieve fame. Many gifted children are hiding--trying to remain unnoticed by pretending to be just like everybody else. Some have withdrawn or are acting out because their differences have been rejected. Some have so much empathy that they are in pain every day over the cruelty on the playground, the violence on TV, or the condition of the world. Many gifted adults are in the helping professions because they feel the need to ease the suffering of others. Others are in business for themselves because they can't cope with the lack of moral integrity they have witnessed in bureaucracies. Still others are devoting themselves to being the best parents they know how to be, and parenting is a profession that doesn't lead to fame. But there are certain qualities of the gifted experience that transcend age, nationality, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, occupation, interests or talent domain:

• good problem solving
• abstract reasoning
• thriving on challenge
• curiosity
• vivid imagination
• intensity
• sensitivity
• complexity
• perfectionism

Gifted people not only think differently, they feel differently. Giftedness is a different way of being, and these differences affect one throughout the lifespan.

If you have selected our Website, chances are that you, yourself, are a gifted person. Before you click off this screen, muttering "Nonsense!" please bear with me and read the rest of this page. There is so much confusion about the meaning of this term, and so much denial, that the most gifted people reject the notion of being gifted.

No matter what your reason for joining us today at the Gifted Development Center website, here's the most important tip I can give you:

If you are a gifted person, the greatest gift
you can give to your children, your students,
your clients, your loved ones, and yourself,
is the appreciation of your own giftedness.

Appreciation begins with recognition. What are the characteristics of giftedness?

• Do you have a passion for justice?
• Are you perfectionistic?
• Are you highly sensitive?
• Do you take on more responsibilities than anyone you know?
• Do you have gifted friends and relatives?
• Do you have a great sense of humor?
• Are you perceptive--seeing through the image to the reality?
• Are you intuitive?
• Has your honesty gotten you into trouble?
• Do people often seek your advice on their personal problems?

If these characteristics fit you, your first job is to understand yourself, then you will be a good role model for others in your life who need your help. Consciousness of the meaning of giftedness is oxygen to the Soul: You need to put on your own oxygen mask before you help others put on theirs.

If you are simply curious about this topic because you are writing a term paper or a newspaper article, doing a TV segment, or you just happened upon the site "accidentally," you need to ask yourself what attracted you to this information. "Is there something about myself that I need to learn from this website?" You will do a better job with your assignment when you identify with it. If you remain in denial, your product will be distorted with your own misperceptions and will do more harm than good.

So here we are talking about you, when that wasn't what you had bargained for. Not comfortable, is it! Being an exception in a world that prizes sameness is never comfortable at first. But as you begin to explore those differences, you will see that your gifts are needed in the world. And as you understand these positive differences in yourself, you will be a better advocate for others. Each person's awareness helps the world become just that much more conscious. Little by little, giftedness will come out of the closet all over the globe, and we will be able to put to rest forever the shame that has for too long accompanied the experience of being gifted.

Would you like to know more about what it's like to have your child tested at the Gifted Development Center (GDC)? Why families travel so far? Why we have you complete so many forms? How testing with the GDC differs from testing your child elsewhere? Please read "The GDC Experience"!

Are you looking for information about the new IQ tests? See "How to Use the New IQ Tests in Selecting Gifted Students" and the other new articles available on Assessment.

Are you looking for information about your own giftedness? Check out Advanced Development, the only journal on adult giftedness.

* DISCLAIMER:  At the Gifted Development Center, we are skilled at working with the entire range of giftedness, including profoundly gifted, and with children from 3 1/2 through adolescence. We also work with gifted adults. We have expertise in diagnosing learning disabilities. However, we do NOT have expertise with severe attentional deficits, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Delay, or severe emotional problems, such as manic depression, schizophrenia, etc. Specialists in these areas should be sought, if applicable.

Just discovering your child's giftedness?
Read this lighthearted look at parenting the gifted,
This is an E-Ticket Ride! The Rollercoaster that
is Parenting a Gifted Child,
by author and presenter, Allie Golon.

Director, Dr. Linda Silverman, awarded
"Special Advocate 2007"
distinction

Linda's vision and advocacy
for gifted individuals have
influenced legislators,
parents, educators,
administrators, and the like,
to consider and institute
positive changes for the sake
of our nation's brightest and
most capable children.

Linda earned her Ph.D. in
Special Education and
Educational Psychology in
1973 under the direction of
Dr. Leo Buscaglia at the
University of Southern
California. She founded the
Institute for the Study of
Advanced Development and
its subsidiaries, the Gifted
Development Center, and
Visual-Spatial Resource in
Denver, Colorado.  Her
research on giftedness led
to discovering that one-sixth
of the gifted population
suffers from hidden learning
disabilities, and at least one-
sixth of the learning-disabled
population demonstrates
visual-spatial gifts. A
passionate advocate for
both gifted and learning-
disabled children, Linda
affirms the positive aspects
of thinking and feeling
differently.

A prolific writer, Linda has
authored such classic books
as Upside-Down Brilliance:
The Visual-Spatial Learner,
Cognitive Skills, Auditory-
Language Skills, Visual-
Motor Skills, and Gross
Motor Skill. She has also
written numerous articles
and delivered hundreds of
lectures throughout the
world. Thousands of
children from around the
world have been tested at
the Gifted Development
Center.  In her 46 years
working with gifted and 2E
children Linda has made a
profound difference in the
lives of children, parents,
and educators.

Advanced Development Journal proudly announces the release of
Volume 11: Social Issues of the Gifted.

For more information, please click here!

Advanced Development,
a juried journal that
focuses uniquely on
gifted adults and their
concerns, is seeking
articles for its next
publication. Volume
12’s theme is
“Life Transitions.”

Please visit Call for
Manuscripts for details
on submission.

Browse through the
Advanced Development
section of this site to
see what kind of
articles have appeared
in previous volumes of
this international
journal, now published
electronically.