CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Presenter: Helen Dudeney

RESIDENTIAL CAMPS FOR GIFTED 7 – 12 YEAR-OLDS

For the past 18 years I have designed and run weekend residential camps for gifted 7 – 12 year-old children and their parents. These 60 camps have been held in a wide variety of locations in Australia with about 3000 children and 1500 parents attending. The camps are designed to address the needs of gifted children to have understanding, challenge, a sense of belonging and acceptance, room to risk take and make mistakes and most importantly an opportunity to find friends. It is often the academic/cognitive needs that are most easily identified and focused upon and therefore the provisions that are sought by parents and provided by teachers are primarily academic. Both the literature and my experience would support the equal importance of understanding the social emotional needs of our gifted children. Both differentiating their cognitive experiences and providing social safe havens with true peers are essential for these children. This presentation will provide insights into the design and execution of these residential camps. Comments form children and parents who have participated in the camps over the years will illustrate how the use of enrichment activities, access to passionate subject experts, mentoring and families learning together has impacted on them.