Category: Psychology

  • A conference for people who work with kids with special needs

    I spent the weekend at the California Association for the Gifted Conference in Sacramento. This isn’t a conference for people who doubt what “gifted” means, though I would guess that most people at the conference dislike the term as much as I do because of its implication of a value judgment. The conference focuses on…

  • What is gifted? And why?

    I was talking to a friend recently about my work on Examiner.com concerning gifted children. What is gifted? she asked. A very reasonable question, and one that no one has completely defined yet – to my satisfaction, at least. I’m planning an article on Examiner.com about all the various definitions of “gifted,” but here I…

  • The uninvited wedding guest

    In this week’s newsletter, Parmalee mentioned that she loves to hear skunk stories. Now that’s a challenge I can’t pass up! It’s a day after Valentine’s Day, thus 12 years and a day after my husband proposed to me. We were the perfect model of the modern couple: we lived together before we decided to…

  • For me, it was an easy choice, but hard work

    My mother (Mary N. Wessling, who’s a medical researcher) pointed me to this article in MedPage Today: Are Physicians Too Quick to Medicate ADHD? The article posits whether family physicians are prescribing ADHD drugs at a too high rate to kids they see, without referring them to a qualified mental health professional. Clearly, this is…

  • The many people our kids might be

    A friend and I were talking the other day. I will preface this to say that this friend is fun, funny, outgoing, sarcastic, smart, and a good cook. All the things I like in a friend. I confessed to her that every time I take one of those personality tests to determine what I should…