Guest Author - Wenda Sheard J.D., Ph.D.

Want a unique family vacation? Families are most welcome to attend the 25th Anniversary conference of the national organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), from July 18-20, 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The SENG mission is to inform gifted individuals, their families, and the professionals who work with them about the unique social and emotional needs of gifted individuals.

I wholeheartedly support the SENG mission because I believe we must teach gifted children not merely academic matters, but also matters of the heart. We need to validate their feelings about their differences from the norm. We need to tell our children that whatever makes them smart in academic senses likely also makes them smart in other senses.

SENG began after a January 1981 Phil Donahue Show on giftedness and depression. On the show two families whose gifted children had committed suicide joined with psychologist James Webb and Joyce Juntune, who was then Executive Director of the National Association of Gifted Children. In an article about SENG’s history, James Webb wrote, “To everyone’s amazement, that edition of ‘The Donahue Show’ resulted in 20,000 calls and letters from people across the country confirming the extent of neglect, misunderstanding, and prevalence of myths regarding gifted children and their families.”

The SENG conference gives parents the opportunity to hear nationally known experts on social and emotional issues while their children enjoy a program especially prepared for them by experienced teachers and other presenters. The teen program gives gifted adolescents an opportunity to talk with experts in the field and forge new friendships with others who understand their unique characteristics.

Parents who have already learned a great deal about the social and emotional aspects of giftedness will appreciate the Advanced SENG Institute sessions new this year, and might want to attend the three-hour intensive pre-conference workshops by leading experts in the field, including Arlene DeVries, MSE, Edward Amend, Psy.D., Steven I. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., Jerald Grobman, M.D., Paul Beljan, Psy.D., ABPdN, and others.

Presenters at the 25th Anniversary SENG conference include nearly fifty authors, doctors, psychologists, neuropsychologists, counselors, educators, and more. Presentation topics include Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration and Emotions, A Brain Based Approach to the Emotional Management of Gifted Children, “The Sensory Room.” Learn to Cope with Over Sensitivities of the Gifted Mind, The Problem of Misdiagnosis in Gifted Children.

I encourage families to attend the 25th Anniversary SENG conference because I believe that gifted children and adults need social and emotional support and knowledge. In my view, the failure of society as a whole to accept the reality of giftedness causes gifted children and adults very real social and emotional pain. As philosopher J.S. Mill wrote in the 19th century:
People think genius a fine thing if it enables a man to write an exciting poem, or paint a picture. But in its true sense, that of originality in thought and action, though no one says that it is not a thing to be admired, nearly all, at heart, think that they can do very well without it.

Let’s join together this summer to support our gifted children and their social and emotional needs.

Wenda Sheard, J.D., Ph.D. is currently vice-president of SENG. After practicing law for nearly twenty years, she earned a PhD in political science with an emphasis on education policy. From 2004‐2006, she and her husband lived in Hangzhou, China and taught international students. Their own three children are now ages 19, 21, and 27 and living in Germany, Minnesota, and Wyoming, respectively. The empty nest is now located in Connecticut outside New York City near where Wenda works as an education policy researcher. She thanks BellaOnline for the opportunity to share her thoughts about SENG.

The entire SENG program is available online at www.sengifted.org