These are the types of questions testing can answer for you:

• I know that our child has special needs, but I can't go to the school and say, "I have a gifted child," without evidence. What exactly are our child's needs?

• Our child loves LEGO and puzzles, and remembers everything she sees. What special techniques should we and her teachers use to adapt to her learning style?

• What resources exist for gifted children?

• Why is our child underachieving? What can we do to reverse this?

• Our daughter seems to be hiding her abilities at school? What can we do about this?

• How can we help our son get along with his classmates?

• Why can our child do some things amazingly well, and yet have such difficulty with other things? What should we do?

• Why is our child, who is so quiet and good at school, having temper tantrums at home? How can we cope with this?

• Our child had chronic ear infections. Now he never seems to pay attention. Is there a connection? How can we help?

Testing is also an important safeguard in the unlikely event of accident or injury throughout life, as it enables you (and your child) to prove to insurance companies the level of prior abilities. (Most insurance companies treat scores of average or above on post-injury testing as evidence that no damage has occurred, unless pre-injury test scores exist.)

Why Select the Gifted Development Center?

The Gifted Development Center is internationally recognized for leadership in the assessment of gifted children. Our expert team of skillful, experienced examiners are specialists in giftedness who understand the intricacies of assessing asynchronous, reflective, perfectionistic individuals of all ages. We have a large number of assessment tools, including the latest versions of the intelligence scales. While most examiners work individually, we use a team approach to determine the best instruments to use, to assure that the complex profiles of the gifted are examined from all aspects, to detect subtle strengths and weaknesses, and to develop the most effective recommendations. Dr. Silverman was on the Advisory Panel for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition, and the Center was selected as one of the sites for testing items and standardizing the new IQ test. As we also serve as a research and training center, policies determined by our team are often adopted by other agencies and examiners who specialize in the gifted. 

Children Suspected of Being Twice Exceptional

We have assessed more than 4,600 gifted and twice exceptional children in the last 26 years from all over the globe. Evaluation at the Gifted Development Center provides you with an in-depth understanding of your children: their particular cognitive strengths and weaknesses, learning style, self-concept, personality characteristics, social and emotional development, achievement as compared with ability, visual and auditory skills, any hidden learning disabilities, and unique needs. Regardless of whether they score in the gifted range, this comprehensive diagnosis is invaluable for understanding how your children learn best, and what modifications of their school and home environment will assist them in developing optimally. Your child is worth this investment. The information you receive at the Gifted Development Center often dramatically affects your child's future. Since Dr. Silverman is a licensed psychologist, our services may be covered by medical insurance.

The Gifted Development Center provides a unique service to parents, not available anywhere else.

1. 1. The staff of the Gifted Development Center is knowledgeable about the special needs of gifted children and adults. Betty Maxwell and Barbara Gilman offer expert phone consultation. Betty Maxwell, Associate Director, holds a master's degree in gifted education, is a certified psycho-synthesis therapist, taught gifted children, and is a superb diagnostician.  Barbara Gilman, Director of Staff Development, holds degrees in Child Development and Psychology and has extensive experience testing and counseling gifted children, making educational recommendations, working with the highly gifted, and gifted children with learning disabilities, AD/HD, or under-achievement issues.
2. 2. Our intake and needs assessment procedures allow parents to determine beforehand the likelihood of their children scoring in the gifted range. We have developed a list of 25 characteristics of giftedness that have been thoroughly researched. If a child fits 3/4 of these traits, there is an 84% chance that he or she will score beyond 120 IQ (the superior range) on individual testing.
3. 3. Our comprehensive assessment allows you to have greater understanding of your child’s social, emotional, spiritual, personality, perceptual, motor, verbal and spatial development, as well as his or her learning style. We interpret your child’s strengths and weaknesses through the lens of giftedness. High abstract reasoning can mask learning disabilities, and complicate other diagnoses. It is necessary to take giftedness into account to fully understand presenting symptoms.
4. 4.  We have encountered a great number of children with moral sensitivity and curiosity about spiritual issues.  We can help parents support their children’s spiritual quest and their need to understand the meaning of their lives. 
5. 5. Our examiners are exceptionally skilled at bringing out the best in shy, perfectionistic, reflective children, as well as exuberant, active gifted children.
6. 6. We can get accurate assessment of intelligence on young children. The ideal age for testing gifted children is 4˝ through 9. On a selective basis, depending on their maturity, we have been able to test even younger children with excellent results.
7. 7. Before you come to the Gifted Development Center, you are asked to complete an 8-page Developmental Questionnaire, an Introversion-Extroversion Continuum (completed separately by both parents), a Behavior Rating Scale, a Short Sensory Profile, and the Characteristics of Giftedness Scale. After all of these materials, and any prior testing, are sent to the Center.
8. 10. You will receive a copy of a detailed psychological report, specifying recommendations for school placement, program modification, enrichment opportunities, social and emotional development, and referral to other professionals as necessary. Many gifted children suffer from allergies, undetected visual processing weaknesses, central auditory processing disorder, sensory integration dysfunction, attention deficit disorder, emotional or behavioral problems, and other weaknesses that may need the attention of a specialist knowledgeable about the diagnostic complications of giftedness.
9. 12. We are internationally recognized as a resource center for highly gifted children and gifted children with learning disabilities. We began in 1979 assessing children in the Denver area, primarily for school placement decisions. Now, more than half of our clients come from all over the country, and as far away as Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, the Bahamas, etc.
10. 13. We have a full range of optional services available to families ( these options are through the center and are not affiliated with Tokyo Gifted Academy)
    1. counseling for children, adults, couples, and families
    2. phone and e-mail consultation for continued support
    3. school staffings, mediation, and development of individual educational plans
    4. re-evaluation of test results for gifted children and adults with learning disabilities
    5. publications (articles and books) and tapes on all aspects of giftedness
    6. assessment of, and support for, gifted adults
    7. Advanced Development, the first journal on adult giftedness
    8. in-service education for teachers and presentations for parent groups on a wide range of issues involving gifted individuals
    9. website discussion groups and free materials
    10. consultations on early childhood development
    11. consultations on homeschooling gifted children
    12. career counseling and preparation for SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT & GMAT exams
    13. educational therapy/tutoring, especially for visual-spatial learners
    14. mentoring in creative writing
    15. a lending library of resource materials available for teachers and parents
11. 13. Dr. Silverman holds a Ph.D. in learning disabilities as well as educational psychology and a license as a clinical/counseling psychologist. With 45 years of experience studying the gifted, she is often able to see masked giftedness, and to detect hidden disabilities that others may miss. She edited the popular textbook, Counseling the Gifted and Talented (Love Publishing, 1993), and and written the popular Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner (DeLeon Publishing, 2002)—the authoritative handbook on children and adults with right-hemispheric strengths.

Children suspected of being twice exceptional (gifted and learning disabled, AD/HD, etc.); children who were the product of a difficult birth (e.g., lengthy labor, need for oxygen at birth, more than 4 hours of pitocin); children who have had a history of chronic ear infections, visual-motor delays, or emotional trauma of any kind; children suspected of being profoundly gifted; children with unusual spiritual experiences or awareness; or children with complex family, school, or legal situations are best accommodated by a consultation with Dr. Silverman.

For more information please visit www.gifteddevelopment.com