Gifted Soup Ingredients from A-Z: Asynchrony “Discover your difference – the asynchrony with which you have been blessed or cursed and make the most of it. -Howard E. Gardner The intellectually gifted 10-year-old who reads at a high school level. Are they driving? Or dating? Or able to run 6 miles for cross country? They may still be a 10-year-old in terms of developmental skills or they might be behind their peers in social, emotional and developmentally skills. The word asynchrony simply means there is a gap between the intellectual abilities of the child and their developmental and/or chronological age. The differences can be marked, apparent and often very confusing. Common misconceptions might be that a 5-year-old reading chapter books should automatically be an expert at tying their shoes and riding a bike. A child’s creativity may be off the charts but they can’t follow simple instructions. Scientific terms come easily but they are easily derailed or distracted to the point of tears. The saying goes that you can’t be good at everything. An intellectually gifted child can be perceived as instantly being good at all things academic and in conjunction, being developmentally far ahead as well. When in daily life, they may be accelerated in one subject and lagging in social skills. In a classroom setting, asynchrony can become glaringly apparent and cause confusion that can lead to frustration for teacher and child (and parent). Canned soup is not the same as grandma’s all-day Sunday soup recipe. The intellectually gifted child’s asynchrony may require that teachers and parents take a different approach than just following microwave soup directions. Does the intellectually gifted child always excel? The simple answer is a big no. Some do. Some present as failing. An intellectually gifted child may have the ability to excel at academic subjects but can present as failing or struggling because an asynchronous skill like holding a pencil correctly holds them back. They may be two to three level grade levels ahead on paper and fail every test presented to them. It may be a simple attention span issue guided by their developmental age, not their academic ability.
Teaching Children
Writing Activity: novels in the form of letters, inspired by Jane Austen’s childhood writing
Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the the greatest novelists to have written in English. Her novels are still widely read and have been adapted into movies and television series. Jane Austen began writing as a child, and now, finally, some of these childhood writings have been adapted into movies. Whit Stillman’s 2016 movie Love and Friendship borrows its title from the work of the same name, written when Jane Austen was fourteen, but is actually based on Lady Susan, a novel that Austen probably wrote when she was nineteen although it was not published until much later. Both works are “epistolary” novels–novels written in the form of an exchange of letters. This form was common in the eighteenth century as the novel developed into a popular form of writing, and even one of Austen’s more famous works, Sense and Sensibility, began its life as an epistolary novel. Another famous novel of the period, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) by Pierre Laclos, is also written in the form of letters, and in the end it is the discovery of one of the secret sets of correspondence that creates the climax of the story. That story, too, has been adapted into many theatre and movie versions including a version where the action is transported to a group of teenagers in New York City (Cruel Intentions, 1999). Today, with the resurgence in correspondence through texting and email, the epistolary story is a format that once again makes sense for young writers. One of the things that is exciting about a novel written in the form of letters is the scope it gives for the writer to unwittingly reveal themselves through the style and content of the letters the author has them write. There is no all-knowing narrator in the middle of the action ready to intervene to tell the reader who the characters really are, what the other perspectives might be, or what to look for. The writers of the letters (the characters) have to tell us everything themselves, without seeming aware that they are doing so. The characters who have to tell us, by telling the people they write to, where they are, what has happened, and how they feel–all of which might be different depending on who they are writing to (imagine: even if you are not inventing things, you would probably write a different letter to your best friend about how things are going and what you have been doing at summer camp than you would to your teacher or your grandparents). The skill of the author is, partly, devoted to giving the writers of the letters their own authentic voices, while at the same time making sure they (accidentally) give themselves away in the little hints they drop or the ways they tell their version of a story. It’s a form that you can really have fun with. Writing activity: Create a scenario with at least two characters and a problem, and choose a contemporary form of letter writing as your style: it could be text messages, emails, postcards, greetings cards, notes on school worksheets, or a combination of these and any other forms you can think of. Write at least 5 letters or messages from each of the characters to the others. Each one should reveal something about the action–carry it forward in some way–and reveal more information to the reader about the character, personality, and role in the action of the writer of the ‘letter’. Why not consult our pages on Juvenilia for links to some of the great authors’ juvenilia, and watch some clips of the movies we have mentioned. You can also read some stories published in Stone Soup, such as “Kisses from Cécile” based on a real correspondence; a piece of historical fiction, “Julius’s Gift”, where letters are both part of the action and part of the narrative, and more recent ones like The Red and Blue Thread which incorporate text messaging great effect. The full movie can be rented from Amazon.com and from Curzon Cinemas.
Writing Activity: working with stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness can be an effective writing style to use when you have a character who sees and thinks very differently from the other characters. This project is inspired by the language of a very young boy. In the first years of Stone Soup, in the mid-1970s, we were fortunate to publish poems and stories written by an extraordinary child, James Lindbloom. The works published in Stone Soup were dictated by James to his mother, the author Nancy Willard, when James was between the ages of three and six. Watch a young child playing a fantasy game and you wonder, where is he? Where is she? What do those eyes see? At least from the vantage point of us older people, it can certainly seem as if very young children have the ability to dip into a world of seemingly magical happenings. As James simply spoke the words that follow, it was his mother who wrote them down and presented them in the form of poetry. There are some who say that young children can’t write poetry because poetry can only be created by writers who are in full control of the words they are choosing. So, perhaps it might make sense for us to think of these as “found poems” or “accidental poems.” But, what is not “found,” or “accidental,” is the obvious ability James has to use words to express powerful visions. The first work, “Make the Morning,” starts out with the very strong, “I want make it dark/I want it way, way dark.” As you read these two works by James let the words flow through you, and imagine the small child who is saying and feeling these words. Project: Write a stream of consciousness narrative, as a short story or as a poem. One thing writers do is explore ideas and problems and life itself through invented characters and invented voices. It can have huge impact to create a character whose unique way of seeing is expressed through a uniquely different way of talking. You can enjoy these two pieces by James as two expressive works of literature, but I’d also like you to think of them the next time you write a story or a poem. James’ style of writing fits into the literary definition of “stream of consciousness.” Create a character whose streaming thoughts introduce us into a different way of thinking and seeing. Read James’s poems Make the Morning Sheep Story
