MANY of Ireland’s brightest students from 6 to 16 years of age are currently signing up for a range of courses which will prepare them for their future careers. The courses are organised by the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland based at Dublin City University and are available at centres throughout Ireland.

This Saturday March 5^th CTYI are holding a one day conference for Parents & Teachers entitled Meeting the Needs of Gifted Children. Professor Gary Murphy of DCU will launch the conference with the keynote address given by Tracey L. Cross, Professor of Psychology at Ball State University in Indiana. Cross is a well-known author in the area of gifted children, and writes on the social and emotional development of gifted students in the Journal ‘Gifted Child Today’.

CTYI is a non profit making organisation and its programmes are designed to allow all talented students to reach their potential both academically and socially by providing relevant and interesting challenges based on ability and interest rather than age. Boys and girls who have ability in areas of abstract, verbal or mathematical reasoning are identified by CTYI as suitable for their courses through a series of assessment tools.

“The courses are extremely popular” said Dr Colm O’Reilly, director CTYI today announcing the programme for the year. “Many are similar to those on offer at first year undergraduate programmes at DCU. We offer enriching classes that cover extra curricular areas not normally studied until third level and today is a very important day in which communicate that to Parents and Teachers of gifted children.”

CTYI’s range of classes for 2011 includes classes for 6 and 7 year olds and 8 to 12 year olds which are run over an 8 week period in Spring and Autumn courses for primary school students who have qualified through assessment and summer residential and non residential courses for second level students in July and August.  With more than 30 courses on offer in their Saturday programme, subjects range from Neuroscience and Psychology to Science in Space, the World of Harry Potter, Engineering, Zoology and detective skills and maths mysteries. Classes in Japanese and Chinese are also popular.

Students on the older students programme tend to study subjects no widely-or not at all-taught on the Leaving Cert programme such 21^st Century Technology Skills, Astronomy, Biomedical Diagnostics and Experimental Physics.

In his address to the ‘Meeting the Needs of Gifted Children’ conference, Professor Tracy L. Cross will discuss the Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Students. Professor Cross’ address looks to be of real significance to the parents and teachers of Ireland’s gifted children due to his proactive stance on nurturing their gifts. “In my opinion, the most important issues of our day are finding and servicing all of the children with gifts and talents” says the Professor.

Taking place this Saturday, March 5^th in DCU, Professor Cross’ address will be accompanied by seminars on the utilising of online resources for gifted learners; correcting dyslexia and building resilience.