The South Coast Branch of the NSW gifted association, GFSG Inc. recently hosted their monthly Games for Enquiring Minds (GEM) event.
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‘Action into Words’ saw some of the South Coast’s brightest children come together to work with the experienced and enthusiastic Judith Radin from WebCaTS.
Judith shared several stories that were authored by children and published as part of WebCaTS’ Create a Picture Book program, before taking the children on a guided journey of dramatic experiences aimed at inspiring them to put pen to paper and author their own masterpiece.
Melinda Gindy, state president of the GFSG Inc. and vice-president of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted & Talented, praised the efforts of the Sub-branch.
“The South Coast Sub-branch are to be commended for providing essential opportunities for children of high intellect to engage with like-minds in a welcoming and supportive environment,” she said.
“Providing such opportunities is paramount for a child’s need to be accepted and valued as part of their community; a place where they can often feel like they are the odd ones out.
“The work of the sub-branch coordinators, who serve in a volunteer capacity, also provide much needed support to the families who can feel very much alone raising their gifted children.”
Some common traits of gifted children may include having an excellent memory, self-taught literacy skills as a preschooler, strong sense of justice, enjoys problem solving, use of large vocabulary and complex sentences, and extreme focus on one topic of interest such as dinosaurs.
Interestingly, gifted children can also have hidden learning disabilities that are undetected due to their ability to easily compensate for them in their early years.
“It is a privilege to work with the gifted community,” Rebecca Keough, one of the sub-branch coordinators said.
“These children are intriguing and enlightening on so many levels, and to be able to give something back to them is amazing. Ensuring the provision of support for the families of gifted children is something we are passionate about.”
GFSG Inc. aims to provide opportunities for gifted children to connect with ‘like minds’, to provide families the opportunity to openly discuss their own experiences without judgment, and to promote access for educators to quality professional development regarding the education of both gifted and GLD (Gifted Learning Disabled) children.
GEM is hosted by the South Coast Sub-branch of GFSG Inc. on a monthly basis in Nowra and Batemans Bay.
To find out more, email southcoast@gfsg.org.au.