Counselling
Provided for parents to discuss issues related to parenting high-ability infants, children and adolescents. Concerns might include the following:
- Giftedness: what it means to parent a gifted child, adolescent or adult
- Emotional: sensitivity, intensity, perfectionism, difficulties, confidence
- Peer relationships: friendship, social skills, isolation, exclusion, bullying
- Mental health: resilience, stress, anxiety, depression, self-harm, resilience
- Academic: study skills, acceleration, underachievement, disengagement
- Developmental: asynchrony, identity formation, adolescence
- Twice exceptionality: Learning Disabilities, AD/HD, ASD, mental health
- Behaviour: impulse control, emotional regulation, conflicts in family/school
- Transitions: prep/school, primary/secondary/tertiary, career selection
When gifted children, their parents or teachers experience difficulties, having access to a Counsellor with a combination of specialised training, expertise and experience in gifted education and counselling is necessary to meet the specific intrapersonal, interpersonal and academic needs of the gifted.
To arrange counselling appointments please contact us.
Counselling can be provided via phone and/or Skype for families unable to attend the centre due to distance, disability or family circumstances. To make alternative arrangements for counselling, please contact us.
Planning
Parents frequently want to discuss the options available to meet their child’s current needs and to plan for their child’s future education.
Questions and discussions might focus upon any of these areas:
- Identifying a child’s needs – should assessment be considered
- Possibilities within the child’s current school – existing and proposed
- Provisions available for gifted students in other schools
- Selecting a school to meet a gifted child’s specific needs
- School application processes
- Moving schools – across town, interstate and internationally
- How to address the child’s needs at the next stage of education
- Preparing a student for transition – for the next level or a new school
- Acceleration: determining if acceleration – and what type – is appropriate
- Educating gifted students via Distance Education
- Opportunities to educate a child outside of school settings
- Home schooling – benefits and challenges
- Accessing alternative educational pathways for gifted students
- Resources available to identify and support twice-exceptional students
- Competitions and participation in testing programs
- Scholarships and financial supports available to enable further study
- Community and holiday programs for challenge, skills and socialisation
- Access and auditions for specialist programs, groups and organisations
- Supporting an adolescent student’s subject and career selection process
- Work experience, internships, guides and mentors
- Travel, gap year, international student exchange and intervarsity study
Parents Quotes
Advocacy
Parents frequently experience difficulties when it comes to advocating for their gifted child. They often fear being regarded as “pushy parents” but are fearful of the results of inaction.
Parents require advocacy skills to approach teachers and school administrators, to effectively advocate for their child and to ensure the child’s intellectual, academic, social and emotional needs are adequately met. Clearing Skies provides guidance and training to help parents develop effective advocacy skills.
Engaging an independent advocate, who will (on your behalf), discuss specific provisions for your gifted child with school personnel can often achieve a better result within a shorter time frame. With extensive experience working with gifted students, their teachers and school administrators, together with knowledge of Gifted Education research, Michele Juratowitch is an effective advocate for gifted students. Michele understands the range of provisions that can be implemented and the most effective interventions to meet the specific and sometimes complex needs of gifted students. Administrators and teachers are more receptive to approaches from an independent, experienced and informed advocate and often welcome this as an opportunity to discuss concerns, needs and provisions for the student.
Parent Courses
Clearing Skies Parent Courses provide parents of gifted children with information about how they can support the intellectual, emotional, social and academic needs of their children. These are one-day courses, conducted by Michele Juratowitch and Rosalind Walsh. Both presenters have considerable experience presenting courses for parents of gifted children, delivered throughout Australia. Clearing Skies Parent Courses are held in various geographic locations, to enable parents from different areas to attend.
Click here to see details of a Clearing Skies Parent Course. Please contact us to register interest in attending a parent course and to request information about future parent courses.