The Importance of Non-Cognitive Skills in Talent Development

Event Recording Available Here

3 types of questions spring to mind when we think about developing children's talents-

1. Is giftedness natural ability or achievement or both? Can you start gifted and become 'un gifted'?
2. How does one translate potential into achievement? What is the process of talent development?
3. I am providing my child opportunities I never had- but she doesn't focus, she gets anxious... What's going on?

This session will address all 3 questions and particularly the importance of psychosocial skills in talent development.

A  large component of developing talent into high achievement in school  and productive careers in adulthood are psychosocial skills such as  optimism, effort, resiliency, openness to feedback and challenge. In  this session we will discuss how parents can cultivate these skills in  their children so as to maximize their talents and abilities.

Facilitator: Dr Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Director - Center for Talent Development, Northwestern University

Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius is the director of the Center for Talent  Development at Northwestern University and a professor in the School of  Education and Social Policy. Over the past 30 years, she has created  programs for all kinds of gifted learners and written extensively on  issues of talent development, particularly on programming for  under-represented gifted students. Her most recent work is a monograph  written with Rena Subotnik and Frank Worrell, “Rethinking Giftedness and  Gifted Education: A Proposed Direction Forward Based on Psychological  Science,” published by the Association for Psychological Science. She  has served as editor of Gifted Child Quarterly, co-editor of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education and editorial review board member for Gifted and Talented International, The Roeper Review, and Gifted Child Today. She is currently vice-chair of the board of trustees of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children.  She also serves on the advisory boards for the Center for Gifted  Education at the College of William and Mary and the Robinson Center for  Young Scholars at the University of Washington. She is the immediate  past president of the National Association for Gifted Children from  whom she received the Early Scholar Award in 1987, the Distinguished  Scholar Award in 2009, and the GCQ Paper of the Year Award in 2011.