Sunday, May 28, 2017

Basic Tips For A Better Gifted Advocacy

By Linda Evans


Advocacy is something a person or group does in order to influence decisions and outcomes in a particular cause or policy. There are different ways of doing this such as publishing research, conducting exit polls, media campaigns and public speaking. Advocates are people which provides advocacy support to the ones needing it and they also use social media.

People can choose one of the many causes or policies they want to become an advocate about. One of them is the gifted advocacy where you can become a voice for gifted children so they could receive the programs they need. Here are some basic tips you could follow in becoming a better advocate for this particular cause.

Administrators and teachers have a line of hierarchical professional authority that is clear and those in the district follow it. Learn the order so you can start talking with the ones at the hierarchical bottom and politely ask to talk with the next in line when things did not work out. This must be courteously done so it is essential to inform them of this.

Professionals have a set of languages they tend to use commonly in their profession and this is true with educators as well. Learn what these phrases and words are so you can understand them better and also help others to understand. Your communication will be better if there is no need for them to explain the things they are saying.

Your words must be chosen carefully as some may have a strong emotional or negative response with what you would say. Certain terminologies that are previously fashionable may not be fashionable now and some other words are to be avoided as well. Try using terms which have a more neutral tone instead so they will receive well your words.

These things take patience, effort and time to be achieved and a year or more may be lost because of these limitations. Short term strategies might be provided before real reforms are implemented which discourages other parents. Some would even choose to transfer their children to another school rather than wait for another year for improvement.

Schools tend to not act because of the concerns they have on what would the gifted child be learning next year when they are accelerated now. The future education of these students are uncertain so they tend to hold off in doing the necessary things. This should be prohibited so the needs of students must be met right away.

Document all the communications you had with the educators and using email is the most efficient way of doing this. This is because when you need to communicate with the next higher authority then you can just forward all the email history you had before. It would save you some time in doing this and everyone would be accountable on their role in educating gifted children.

The luxury of editing before sending the email messages is there also specially when the topic is emotionally charged. Let someone else read your message first or when you cooled down your emotions, reread them and check its tone. Focus on the point you mainly want them to understand.




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