GT-Special Mailing List
All gifted children are special because of their
intellectual abilities. Some, however, have disabilities
that make them 'twice-special.' This discussion group is
devoted to these children and their families.
Parents/guardians, educators and mentors, and medical
and mental health care providers who are facing the joys
and challenges of supporting and nurturing these children
are most welcome here.
What does GT-Special address? Generally, we are
talking about any gifted child who has a learning
disability (LD) and/or other neurological problem(s) that
interfere with the child's ability to reach the full
potential of his or her giftedness. These other
neurological problems may include but are not limited to
ADD, hyperactivity, autism, Asperger's Syndrome,
Tourette's Syndrome, PDD, ODD, OCD, anxiety disorders,
sensory integration disorders (SI), and depression.
What these problems all have in common is that
they:
- Are caused by problems in the brain and nervous
system
- Are in some cases treatable, but are essentially
incurable at this time
- Are widely misunderstood by schools and by the
public
GT-Special is a safe place where we can discuss
our twice-special children, and the problems we face in
helping them (and others) understand and deal with their
differences, while also encouraging them to develop and
enjoy their exceptional intellectual abilities.
New to all
this?
To keep the list safe and supportive, the list moderator
will enforce the following guidelines:
Topics welcome on GT-Special include:
- Special challenges involved in parenting and
educating our children
- Advocating for programs that meet their often
disparate needs
- Social issues that arise from these special
challenges
- Surviving the Individual Education Plan (IEP)
process
- Discussion of pertinent research**
- How any of the above issues continue to affect us
even into adulthood
**HOWEVER: this list is not an appropriate
place for conducting research. Any person wishing to
collect information on these children as part of a
research study must contact the listowners who will
review the request and post it if they feel it is
appropriate.
List members are asked to remember that our children
can and do read list e-mail. Please post in ways which
would you would be proud to point to as models of good
citizenship to your kids. Due to the sensitive nature of
the topics of this list, we only keep one week's worth of
archives. Archives are accessible only to
listmembers.
Promoting a Civilized Environment
We find a list works best when everyone treats
everyone else with respect. Below are a few guidelines
designed to make GT-Special a safe environment for
discussing often difficult issues. We created this list
because we needed a safe place where we could discuss the
special issues we face. For this reason, there are a few
special rules for this list:
1. Posters may not question the
existence of any of the special challenges
faced by our members. While they may respectfully
question whether a particular label truly fits a
particular child, readers must keep in mind that those
closest to the situation know a lot more about
it then will ever be revealed in an email
discussion group, and as such we will accept the
family as the final authority on what diagnoses
are appropriate for any child.
Examples:
It is not acceptable to write
"There's no such thing as ADD. This is just an
attempt by the schools to medicate children into
compliance."
It is acceptable to write "Has your child been
evaluated by a clinician? Your description of her
classroom problems sound a lot like behaviors often
seen in gifted children who are unchallenged and
bored."
It is not acceptable to write "Any kid
that can't read by age 9 can't possibly be gifted,
this dyslexia stuff is just an excuse."
It is acceptable to write "Research shows that
many children diagnosed with dyslexia quickly learn
to read when taught by ____ methods, you might want
to give them a try."
2. Posters may not attack other list members
for their choices of treatment for their children,
although they may suggest that certain treatments are
worth looking into or that there may be alternatives
to current treatments being used.
Examples:
It is not acceptable to write:
"Using medications on a child is a horrible thing
to do. No caring parent would drug their kid just
to placate the school."
It is acceptable to write: "Have you tried using
the behavioral methods in the book by ____? Some of
these sound like they might be helpful for the
problems you are describing."
It is not acceptable to write "Allowing
your child to use a computer or tape recorder to
get through written assignments is unfair to all
the other kids and just encourages
laziness."
It is acceptable to write "We found that
skipping straight to cursive eliminated a lot of
the barriers that were seemingly insurmountable
with printing."
3. We don't flame here. Most of us
have to deal with plenty of disrespect
elsewhere...here we are trying to help one another.
Because support doesn't always mean saying "I agree",
it's important to phrase challenges in such a way that
it is clear that it is not the worth of the writer you
are questioning, but rather the validity of the
idea.
What is a flame? It is important to recognize that
to disagree respectfully, or to politely request a
change of behavior, is not to "flame". The following
is NOT a flame:
"Has your child been tested using IQ and
achievement tests? Many gifted kids show ADD-like
symptoms if they are in a classroom setting where
they are bored and required to do work well below
their capabilities."
This is a flame:
"Listen you jerk - how can you be so
stupid and listen to the school idiots tell you
your kid has ADD when you haven't bothered to get
testing done?!? If you'd bothered to read the FAQ
you wouldn't be doing such stupid things."
GT-Special will be a much more effective
resource for all of us if we endeavor to keep it
flame-free.
In addition to the "rules of engagement" outlined
above, GT-Special shares the GT-World
guidelines:
- Every list evolves its own culture over time. One
of the best ways to make a good impression in a new
venue is to spend some time "reading the room" to get
a feel for the place. Take some time to read the posts
over a few days, then please write a little note to
introduce yourself to us!
- Remember that a mailing list is a highly public
forum. Please think twice before divulging information
which you would feel uncomfortable mentioning in a
restaurant or other public place where anyone could
overhear you. While our list member agreement outlines
acceptable use for the information on this list, it is
possible for anyone, with any motivation, to join the
list and read our posts.
- To the extent we are successful in creating a
friendly, helpful atmosphere, we are likely to attract
people you know in real life...neighbors, teachers and
friends. Once you've been around for a while, the
Internet quickly ceases to be a place where you are
truly anonymous. For this reason, you need to take the
same responsibility for the things you say here as you
would anywhere else.
- We recommend including your name and e-mail
address in the last two lines of each message sent to
the list, to make it simpler for people to communicate
privately with you via e-mail. We also encourage
including the state or province you live in, because
it helps people find others who are covered by the
same local laws. However, please do not use signature
blocks which occupy more than five lines of text, or
which contain lines longer than 80 characters.
- It's important to remember that each of us speaks
only from our own experience and reading. What works
for some families does not work for all. Each reader
is responsible for evaluating the information
presented here in terms of the credibility of the
source and the applicability to the reader's own
situation.
- Remember that people read this list using a very
wide variety of hardware and software, and that some
users are limited in their mailbox space or must pay
according to the volume of mail they receive. As a
courtesy, please configure your e-mail software to use
"7-bit" encoding, and turn off the use of
"attachments". It is helpful to include part of the
message to which you are reacting in your response,
but please don't quote the whole thing. If your
reaction is a simple "I agree", please send that
privately.
- Please don't post the following to this
list:
- warnings about e-mail viruses. For more
information on these and other hoaxes, see
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
- chain letters (in ANY form)
- blatantly commercial messages (although where
relevant to a discussion, please feel free to
mention specific products you have found
useful).
EXPECTED LISTMEMBER CONDUCT
- Confidentiality: Many of the issues
discussed on this list are of a sensitive nature. Any
information posted here concerning a particular
individual shall not be discussed outside of the list
without the permission of that individual or their
parent/guardian. Anyone violating this will be
immediately removed from the list membership.
- All posts to GT-Special remain the
copyrighted work of their individual authors. With the
exception of "fair use" applications, such as quoted
material included to clarify replies, no posts may be
reproduced in whole or in part in any medium without
the express written permission of the author. This
includes reproducing or forwarding any part of a list
post in private e-mail to non- listmembers. And please
do not, under any circumstances, post private e-mail
to this list.
- GT-Special is maintained for the benefit of
the community of families with gifted children with
learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders,
and/other neurological challenges. While lively
discussion is expected and encouraged, listmembers
will maintain a tone which is constructive of
community and respectful of fellow listmembers. Posts
which appear to be destructive of community will
result in revocation of list membership. The listowner
is empowered to revoke list membership at his/her
discretion, but is required to inform the GT World
board of directors of such actions. Listmembers
who wish to appeal the decision of the listowner may
take their case to the GT World board.
- Listmembers understand that information exchanged
on GT-Special is the product of anecdotal
individual experience and in no way represents
professional advice. Listmembers implement strategies
suggested on GT-Special at their own
risk.'
LISTMEMBER AGREEMENT
By remaining subscribed to the GT-Special
mailing list, you demonstrate that you have agreed to the
above conditions. If these conditions are not acceptable
to you, then you must immediately unsubscribe from the
list by sending e-mail with an empty subject line to:
listserv@listserv.icors.org containing the text "unsubscribe
GT-SPECIAL"
Technical Details
The GT-World mailing lists run on listserv Server
version 2.548 software. For a list of commands send
e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.orgwith
the one word help in the message
body.
listserv offers two methods for managing your membership
options. You may send commands to the listserver via
e-mail, or use the web interfaces for the various
lists.
Web Interface
The following link will permit you to set your
preferences for GT-Special Lists:
GT-Special Web Interface
E-Mail Interface
The following is a summary of the most common e-mail
commands:
Technical Details updated on 2/11/2006 by Valerie
Bock
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