Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted, or SENG, is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to empower families and communities to guide gifted and talented individuals to reach their goals: intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.” Currently, SENG is pursuing a research project to gather data on “Parents’ Experiences with Their Children’s Doctors.” Any parents interested in participating in this survey can do so through the end of this month. It is anonymous and only takes about 10 minutes to complete.
The survey’s purpose is an attempt to uncover real (rather than the current anecdotal) data on whether and how often parents turn to their child’s pediatrician (or desire that they could) for information on their child’s giftedness and related issues. The results of the survey will be presented to both gifted education and medical professional audiences, such as the NAGC and SENG conferences and the American Academy of Pediatrics meetings. Additionally, SENG will be submitting the results to various professional journals for possible publication.
If you are a parent of a gifted child, you can take the survey at this link. Another way to access the survey is to go to SENG’s homepage and click on the survey link in the column on the left side (scroll down a bit). Anyone having trouble accessing the survey can try the suggestions on the survey FAQ page.
I flipped through the survey myself to find out what sort of questions were being asked. As someone who is not a parent of a gifted child, I didn’t answer any of the questions, but was still able to view each question. What this means is, if you don’t have an answer for a particular question, or if you don’t feel comfortable answering a particular question, you can skip it and still be able to complete the rest of the survey.
The survey’s principle investigators are Rosina Gallagher, Ph.D. (a psychologist who currently is president of the SENG Board) and Marianne Kuzujanakis, M.D., M.P.H., (a pediatrician who is currently a member of the SENG Board). Also consulting on the project is James Webb, Ph.D., a founder of SENG and former member of the SENG Board. (He is also President of Great Potential Press, which offers a discount code for parents at the end of the survey. Full disclosure: that is the company that published my book.)
Anyone with questions about the survey can email either of the addresses located at the bottom of the survey FAQ page.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to help SENG on this project!
