University of California Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) Tutorial

This post is a start to finish TAG tutorial example for students transferring from a California community college to a University of California campus.

0. Eligibility for Community College

Our hypothetical student, Riley Smith, wants to enroll in Ohlone Community College, then transfer to a UC campus with a major in Biology. Riley will graduate from high school, but they have not taken a high school chemistry course or a second year of Spanish. Riley’s highest math class in high school is pre-calculus. Riley will be eligible for community college using their high school diploma. Riley can register for Ohlone College through CCC Apply.

CCC Apply

1. TAG Eligibility

Download the current TAG Matrix. Review the TAG eligibility requirements on the first page. Will you be eligible? If not, you can still apply to UC through the regular transfer process, but this post is not for you! Let’s assume Riley will meet the eligibility requirements when it is time to apply for a TAG.

UC TAG Matrix

2. Choose a UC Campus

Using the TAG Matrix, identify a UC campus that offers a TAG in your desired major. Note that only 6 UC campuses participate in the TAG program, and there is a column in the TAG matrix listing excluded majors at each campus. Riley decides to work towards a TAG in Biology to UC Santa Barbara. Note that Santa Barbara lists Biology as a selective major. This means there are additional requirements. Click the button to visit the UC Santa Barbara selective majors page, and read the requirements for Biology. Visit the UCSB Biology Department page to learn about the Biology pre-major and the process of becoming a Biology major.

UCSB Selective Majors

UCSB Biology Department

3. Major Preparation Requirements

Each UC campus has articulation agreements with each California community college. To determine the major preparation coursework that they need, Riley visits Assist.org and searches for the articulation agreement between UC Santa Barbara and Ohlone College in the Biology major. Try searching yourself, and then compare the results with the articulation agreement in the button below. Be sure to read the fine print of the requirements at the top of the agreement.

UCSB/Ohlone Biology

Assist.org

4. General Education Requirements

Each UC campus is divided into colleges, for example at UC Santa Barbara the Biology department is in the College of Letters and Sciences. Each college has general education requirements for the degrees it awards. Check the UC General Education Campus Guidance page to find out the requirements for UCSB College of Letters and Sciences. Riley finds that at UCSB, IGETC can be used to satisfy general education requirements, but is not required for a Biology transfer. Students are advised to prioritize major preparation courses over IGETC completion.

UC Gen Ed by Campus

5. IGETC vs. UC 7 Course Pattern

Riley will need to choose to fulfill either the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or the UC 7 Course Pattern (UC7) in order to be eligible to transfer to UC. Take a look at the IGETC requirements for Ohlone College and compare them to the UC7. There are pros and cons to each option. For STEM majors who must take a lot of major preparation courses, it’s easier to fit the UC7 into your course plan. You could complete your requirements sooner. On the other hand, completing IGETC means all of your lower division general education requirements will already be checked off when you are admitted to UC, and those courses won’t use up any of the 70 semester unit course transfer limit.

Ohlone IGETC

UC 7 Course Pattern

6. Course Planning

Riley decides to try to complete IGETC as well as the major preparation coursework. Using the articulation agreement and the Ohlone IGETC list, they create a spreadsheet listing both the major preparation and general education requirements and the Ohlone courses that will fulfill them. Riley’s plan is to try to finish IGETC, but if that becomes too difficult, to switch to the UC7.

Course Planning Spreadsheet

7. Scheduling Courses

Riley discovers in the fine print of the articulation agreement that in order to fulfill the TAG requirements for UCSB, they would need to complete a year of Organic Chemistry by the fall prior to transferring. Because General Chemistry is a prerequisite for Organic Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry 112A is only offered in fall while Organic Chemistry 112B is only offered in spring, there is no way to complete the sequence in time within 2 years. But Riley decides that trying for UCSB is still their goal, so they opt to add in a few extra courses that will also give them more options: COMM 111 Intro to Public Speaking is a CSU transfer requirement. Choosing MATH 101A/B instead of MATH 167 allows Riley to fulfill the requirements for an Associates Degree for Transfer (ADT) from Ohlone College. Completing the ADT and CSU requirements gives Riley a backup plan of applying to CSU in case they are not able to meet the stringent GPA requirements for UC transfers, and a guarantee of being admitted to at least one CSU campus.

Ohlone Course Catalog

Biology ADT

ADT Guarantee

8. Enrolling in Community College

Riley checks the academic calendar and enrolls at Ohlone College in February of their high school senior year. Riley chooses their goal as Biology ADT, and signs up for the PD-170 Freshman Connect orientation course. Once Riley is enrolled, they are able to make an appointment with a counselor at Ohlone who can approve their Student Education Plan (SEP). This step is required by the community college, but it’s important to do your homework ahead of time so that you know what your goals are, what the requirements are, and what courses you want to take. You should double check everything the counselor is telling you by referring to the community college catalog, Assist, and the university website. If you are not sure about something, ask as soon as possible! Riley enrolls in a Summer course to finish a prerequisite as soon as possible during the spring enrollment window. This is important, because courses fill up quickly.

Ohlone SEP

Ohlone Academic Calendar

9. UC Transfer Application Planner

Riley also creates a UC Transfer Application Planner (UC TAP) account to track their progress and see reminders about TAG application deadlines. If you are planning to transfer, you can create a UC TAP account for yourself to see how it works. Riley enters their high school information and their planned coursework into UC TAP. When Riley receives a grade for a course, they login in to UC TAP and update the course grade to keep track of their GPA and UC7 requirements. Riley did not have any AP exams, but you can also add AP exams to UC TAP to fulfill certain transfer requirements.

UC TAP

10. Applying for TAG

Good news! Riley was able to complete their courses on schedule and with the required GPAs for the UCSB TAG. This was challenging, and Riley realizes that UC transferable courses are not easier just because they were taken at a community college. Transferring is not an easy backdoor to UC, and Riley didn’t save as much time or money as they had hoped because they were forced to take 3 years to finish the major prep requirements. It is now September of the third year at Ohlone, and it is time to file the TAG application. Riley makes sure to update all their grades in UC TAP before submitting the application through UC TAP.

11. Applying to UC

More good news! Riley’s TAG was accepted. Riley still needs to apply to UCSB through the UC Application portal. You can make yourself an account to see the different sections of the UC transfer application. Riley will be answering personal insight questions and entering academic history information. The UC application must be submitted in October after receiving the TAG acceptance. Riley also plans to apply to a couple of other UC campuses as a regular transfer applicant, and to a CSU campus as well. This is smart because Riley’s TAG is not a done deal! Riley could still be disqualified for poor grades or for some other reason during their final year at Ohlone. They still have two semesters to go.

UC Application

CSU Application

12. Completing FAFSA

Riley and their parents have researched federal financial aid and Cal Grants. They know that there are limits on the total amount of financial aid a student can receive and the total number of years during which they can receive it. Riley and their parents decided to save the federal financial aid for the four-year university. Riley and their parents complete the FAFSA financial aid application. Riley does not qualify for Cal Grants because their parents’ income is above the limit.

FAFSA

Cal Grants

13. Filing for Graduation

Hooray! Riley is accepted at UCSB to the pre-biology major. Riley makes sure to accept the offer of admission by the deadline. It is now spring of their final year at Ohlone. Riley files for graduation through the registrar’s office at Ohlone.

Apply for Degree

14. Final Transcript & IGETC Certification

Riley has finished all their Ohlone courses with flying colors! They still need to submit their final high school and community college transcripts through the UCSB admitted students portal, as well as their IGETC certification. UCSB needs this information to evaluate the student’s transferred coursework and to verify that all TAG requirements were completed as agreed in the TAG contract.

IGETC certification

Ohlone Transcript

Riley is officially admitted to UCSB, their lower division general education requirements are fulfilled, their major preparation requirements are fulfilled, and they are in a good position to successfully apply to the full biology major at UCSB. Riley has more than 70 semester units, so not all of their coursework will transfer to UCSB. However, all of the major preparation courses should transfer.

Hopefully, this tutorial has given you an overview of the UC TAG program and the process of transferring using a TAG. There are definitely additional complications that can arise if a student takes community college coursework at more than one community college. In that case, the student will need to make sure to complete courses grouped together in the articulation agreement at the same community college to make sure they will fulfill major prep requirements. The student will also have to choose which community college they will use to certify IGETC, or decide where to earn their ADT degree.

The transfer process is highly detailed and complex, so make sure to double check your plans with the community college counselor and a transfer admissions counselor at the target university. Visit the UCSB Transfer Admissions website to see how to set up an appointment.

UCSB Transfer Admissions

Is Everyone a Little Autistic?

https://www.facebook.com/autiebiographical

First, what does it mean to be autistic? In medical terms, it means that the person meets a set of criteria for a diagnosis (see summary below). In this definition, a person either meets the criteria, or they don’t. If the criteria are met, then the person’s situation is further described based on criteria for support needs. However, anyone who has been diagnosed with autism is by definition 100% autistic. Someone with higher support needs is not “more autistic” than someone with lower support needs.

Layman’s summary of criteria for autism diagnosis:

Communication and Social Interaction
● Difficulty with ordinary social interactions
● Difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication
● Difficulty maintaining relationships

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior
● Stimming
● Need for sameness and routines
● Very specific, intense interests
● Over or under reacting to the environment or internal stimuli

Criteria for diagnosis
● These symptoms have been present since early childhood.
● These symptoms cause significant difficulties in relationships, at work or school, and in daily life.

A person could meet one or more of these criteria without having autism. A person could also be autistic, but not have a medical diagnosis. However, this does not mean that “everyone’s a little autistic”. An autism diagnosis is based on behavioral observations. Since autistic people are human beings, our behaviors come from the same repertoire of human behaviors as everyone else’s. It is not necessarily autism if you jiggle your leg when you’re sitting in a waiting room. It is not necessarily autism if you had a speech delay. It is not necessarily autism if crowds make you nervous. These are human behaviors that people display for a variety of reasons. They do not make someone “a little autistic.”

The differences that allow an autism diagnosis are based on how and when we display a certain constellation of behaviors, but autism is not behaviors! Just as the flu is not a fever, autism is not the behavioral symptoms that define autism. Autism is an inferred condition. Based on a pattern of behavior and responses, we can infer that someone has developmental neurological differences that lead them to display a certain constellation of behaviors. Just as having a fever doesn’t necessarily mean you have a touch of the flu, having one or a few of the criteria for autism doesn’t mean that you are a little autistic.

Misunderstanding the term “Autism Spectrum”

The term “Autism Spectrum” does not refer to a linear scale with one end being less autistic and the other end being more autistic. It refers to the variability observed among autistic people. People who are on the Autism Spectrum are all 100% autistic, but we have different strengths and weaknesses. This is likely because we have different sets of specific neurological differences, but what we share is that our differences are significant enough to be disabling.

I prefer the term “neurodivergent”. Autistic people are not all alike, but our differences mean that we share some common experiences of being excluded, bullied, harassed, abused, or discriminated against because of our neurological differences. Society, and especially educational institutions, were not built to be accessible to us. Systemic bias against disabled people means that medical and educational institutions seek to change our behavior, train us to appear nonautistic, “cure” us, or prevent our existence. We grow up receiving messages that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way we are and with the needs we have based on our neurological functioning. We suffer, not from being autistic, but from the rejection of our true selves by society.

Why saying “everyone’s a little autistic” is harmful

Some readers of this cartoon wonder why the autistic character seems so angry. After all, most people who say “everyone’s a little autistic” do not realize that saying it is harmful. They may intend to find common ground with an autistic person, they may be attempting to be inclusive, or they may genuinely feel that they, too, might be autistic. The discussion above hopefully convinced you that the statement, “everyone’s a little autistic”, is false. But beyond that, when you say it, you are invalidating the painful experiences of autistic people of being excluded because of their neurological differences.

Additionally, the path to a diagnosis is often long and difficult. It requires extensive psychological testing and medical and personal history. It may require facing painful truths about one’s abilities and memories of childhood abuse. It can be expensive and is not always covered by medical insurance. People do not undergo the diagnostic process just for curiosity. They usually seek a diagnosis because they are struggling in their lives and want to understand why. If you haven’t experienced that, saying “everyone’s a little autistic” sounds like you’re dismissing the very real difficulties faced by autistic people.

What to say when someone discloses to you that they are autistic

This depends on the context and how well you know the autistic person, but in general thanking them for their openness and for trusting you with this information will be welcomed. If you are emotionally close to the autistic person and this is a new diagnosis or self-diagnosis, you might ask them how they are feeling about it. If you also think you might be autistic, you can share that you’ve been wondering whether you might be autistic, too. However, it’s not a good idea to ask for evidence that the person is autistic, for example asking, “Why would you think that?” or to deny that they’re autistic, for example saying, “I don’t see you that way.” And please don’t say, “Well, everyone’s a little autistic!”

Open Letter to Assembly Member Eggman and Democratic Lawmakers in California

Re Assembly Bills 2926 and 2756:

To Assembly Member Susan Eggman and other Democrats who are supporting these bills:

I understand that you want to “do something” to prevent child abuse. These bills are not the way to do it. They do not address the fact that the majority of child abuse victims are under the age of five years. They do not address the fact that abusers could simply not register with the state as homeschoolers. They do not address the fact that homeschoolers are no more likely to abuse their children than other parents. According to GV Wire,

Eggman says the Riverside County arrests of David and Louise Turpin in January on child abuse charges motivated her to write the law. The Turpins are accused of starving 13 of their children and force them to live in unimaginable conditions. They reportedly homeschooled their children.

“While this horrific example is not indicative of the vast majority of loving, caring families who choose to homeschool for various reasons, it has shed light on just how little we know about these schools and students, especially when compared to some other states,” Eggman told GV Wire.

AB2756 will collect only self-reported data on homeschool families. This will not prevent child abuse! AB2926 seeks to establish an advisory committee appointed by the state superintendent of schools. This committee cannot be expected to represent the interests of homeschoolers. Its job will be to study the appropriateness and feasibility of establishing requirements on homeschoolers, including, but not limited to,

• Health and safety inspections of our private homes
• Curriculum standards that will presumably match public school requirements
• Requiring parents to have teaching credentials in order to teach their own children

Assembly Member Eggman, this is far beyond shedding light on homeschooling. This is an attempt to regulate homeschooling out of existence.

Perhaps you are not aware that you have a growing constituency among homeschoolers. Homeschooling in California has been increasing, especially among secular and liberal families. The homeschooling population in California is not a monolithic Christian conservative group.

Our reasons for homeschooling are as diverse as our backgrounds and political affiliations, but for many of us, our motivation springs from a desire for the freedom and independence that homeschooling offers. We want to be free to choose a way of educating our kids that is best suited to them.

Some of us have wanted to homeschool from the beginning, but many of us came to homeschooling out of necessity. Public schools were not serving our kids’ needs, and private schools were too expensive for us to afford.

For those of us who have been driven to homeschooling by the needs of our kids, your implication that we are the potential abusers is offensive because we have been forced to withdraw our kids from prison-like schools that were harmful to their bodies and spirits.

For those of us who have been told by public school administrators that they cannot adequately accommodate our kids’ needs, your proposal that homeschoolers should be forced to use the same curriculum as public schools is dismaying.

For those of us whose kids were not served by the public school system but were treated like interchangeable cogs in an inhumane and rigid machine that cared only about “seat time” rather than nurturing creativity and the joy of learning, your suggestion that teaching credentials are what matters is laughable.

It is not within the purview of the State of California to inspect my private home just because I do not choose to use the public schools provided by the state to educate my children. It is a basic human right for parents to choose the manner in which to educate their children. Do not compromise our rights to privacy and freedom of educational choice for our children.

If the public school system in this state were some sort of well-funded utopia that produced universally good results and never failed to detect parental abuse of a child, these bills might make sense. But be honest. That is far from the reality. As long as our school system is incapable of serving every student in a manner that keeps them safe and nurtures their potential, the option to homeschool will be necessary.

Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives, you should value a diversity of educational options. Diversity is a strength! Keep California strong by maintaining a system with many educational choices, including homeschooling. Do not seek to legislate homeschooling out of existence by making it into another version of public school with rigid and stifling regulations. Do not use a tragic and rare case of abuse as an excuse to take away the only means some of us have left of educating our children in joy and with promise for their futures. If you do, you will be failing to serve your own constiuents.

Please represent our interests and the interests of our children.

Off the Map: Atypical Paths to Fulfilling Lives

Notes and Supplemental Materials

This post includes a summary of the panel discussion I organized for the SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) conference in San Jose in 2014.

One of the main topics we covered in our discussion was the common concerns that parents face when choosing alternative educational paths for their gifted children. Here are some points that we touched on along with a few others.

Common fears of going off the beaten path

• My child will be different in ways that are not accepted by others.
• My child will miss out on opportunities such as college and careers.
• My child will be isolated or will miss out on opportunities for connections with others.
• My child will not know how to compete in the “real” world or will be over-confident.
• My child will not develop a realistic assessment of his own abilities.
• My child won’t be resilient if I tailor his environment to his needs.
• My child will miss out on important knowledge or skills.
• My child will not develop needed skills for social interaction.
• My child won’t be exposed to a variety of people, cultures, and experiences.
• I will face criticism as a parent from family members and people in my social group who share these concerns.

Most of these social concerns arise from unfamiliarity with homeschooling and other alternative educational practices, and from lack of connections to people with experience in homeschooling, unschooling, radical acceleration, grade skipping, and alternative schools. Parents who already know that connectedness with peers is important for their kids, and who are aware of social expectations in our culture are unlikely to raise isolated, unsocialized kids no matter what kind of educational paths their kids take. If you are considering making a change, look for parents and groups in your area to connect with. You will probably learn about many opportunities for group learning and social activities that you were not aware of. Online resources can often be a good way to find out about local groups.

Some places to start:
The Gifted Issues Forum
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Davidson Institute for Talent Development
Bay Area Gifted Homeschoolers

In terms of career and college concerns, alternative educational choices don’t necessarily close doors to more traditional college experiences later on. In fact, many colleges welcome students who have already learned how to take charge of their own learning and who are self-motivated. Here are some possible advantages to consider about what your children can learn from taking an alternative path.

Advantages of alternative educational paths

• Being exposed to people, things, and experiences that are out of the ordinary
• Having the opportunity to develop unusual talents
• Looking at “the system” from outside (having a different perspective)
• Allowing for creativity
• Having flexibility in thinking and problem solving which can enhance self-reliance
• Learning to use resources in new ways
• Traveling, experiencing other cultures
• Having unique opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery

These are all skills and life experiences that can increase the odds of success for your child in college and beyond.

Giftedness and alternative education

How can alternative education address common gifted issues? Here are some factors that can be customized in your child’s education.

Curriculum fit

• Advanced material
• Faster pacing
• Greater depth
• Greater breadth
• Interdisciplinary connections
• Special instruction (arts and sciences not taught in school)

Personality fit

• Working style (does child need quiet? freedom of movement?)
• Need for autonomy
• Need for novelty and exploration
• Need for challenge
• Need for creative expression
• Drive to follow passion

Asynchrony/2e

• Tailored instruction in different subjects
• Self-paced instruction
• Personalized Accommodations

Social fit

• Can choose social group
• Can make social connections through shared interests
• Mentorship opportunities
• Time for extracurricular activities

If school is not working for your child, sometimes you can advocate for accommodations at school. Sometimes, advocacy seems to fall on deaf ears, or your child’s needs are too far outside the box to be adequately addressed at school. You can customize your child’s learning situation! I encourage you all to look for alternatives and have the courage to experiment. It’s probably impossible to find or create a perfect learning environment, but we can often improve things a great deal for our gifted kids.

Suggested readings

Perspectives in Homeschooling Series from GHF Press

Panelists

Mika Gustavson, MFT

http://www.gifted-matters.com/

Christabel Choi
http://www.sea.edu/plastics/team/christabel_choi
http://www.choisma.com/

Molly Isaacs-McLeod, JD
http://www.advocacyandplanningforthegifted.com/bio.html
http://www.sengifted.org/about-seng/people/board-of-directors

Moderator:
Dan Peters, PhD
http://summitcenter.us/about/professionals/drdanpeters/

Organizer:
Catharine Alvarez, PhD
https://microscopesareprudent.wordpress.com/

Review of “High Intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities”

Graphical abstract from the Karpinski paper

There is a new study,  High Intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities, published in the journal Intelligence, that has already garnered some attention from science journalists:

Hyper Brain, Hyper Body: the Trouble with High IQ in Neuroscience News

Having a High IQ May Lead to Increased Risk of Mental Illness in Thriveworks

First of all, I agree that the study is interesting and validates some of my personal experience. Also, I do think the concept of overexcitabilities can be a useful way to conceptualize gifted experience, and I am very encouraged to see any research on these topics. Research on giftedness usually takes a low priority, especially research on the kinds of difficulties gifted people face. However, when I read this paper, I was really disappointed by several major weaknesses in both their experimental design and their conceptual model. The best thing I can say of this study is that it encourages further study. The downside is the spawning of weak and credulous science reporting that contributes to negative stereotypes of gifted people and plays into the public’s willingness to define the problems of giftedness as defects located solely within gifted people: “hyper body” and “hyper brain”.

Issues with the study design

The authors claim to have demonstrated a correlation between IQ and psychological and physiological overexcitabilities. However, they did not test IQ (which presumably varies among Mensans) or use any other psychometric testing for overexcitabilities or psychological conditions, nor did they test specific physiological measures. Instead, they took a non-random sample of American Mensa members and gave them a questionnaire asking them to self-report whether they had specific physical and psychological conditions. The results of the questionnaire were then compared to the prevalences for those conditions found by the 2015 National Health Interview Survey and other national health surveys.

The Mensa questionnaire and the national health surveys did not ask the same types of questions, and they were not administered to groups with similar compositions in terms of age, race, socioeconomic status, education, or gender distribution.

“Participants included 2213 that identified as male (60%), 1472 that identified as female (40%), 22 who identified as non-cisgender, and 8 who declined to state. Regarding race, 87.9% of participants reported being European American, 2.7% as Asian American, 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino, 1.6% as African American, and 5.2% as other, mixed race, or who did not respond. The age range of participants was from 18 to 91 years (M = 53, SD = 15.18). Thus, the majority of participants were older, male, and European American.”

For comparison, the US Census Bureau reports that 51% of the population is female, 77% European American, 13% Black or African American, and 6% Asian. Essentially, the national survey data and the Mensa questionnaire data were apples and oranges. No attempts were made to control for other factors that could contribute to differing rates of various health conditions. Socioeconomic status is potentially a large contributor here. As Cory Doctorow pointed out on Boing Boing in his blog, Some thoughts on whether intelligence is linked to anxiety and depression,

“…in the US, access to medical care and thus formal mental health diagnosis is strongly correlated with income. That means that you’re more likely to have a professional affirm that your distress is caused by a clinical disorder if you’re wealthy than if you’re poor. High IQ correlates with wealth, and the wealth distribution in the study draws from disproportionately high-income subjects (“41.7% earned over $100,000; 16.9% earned between $76,000 and $100,000; 20.1% earned between $51,000 and $75,000; 14.9% earned between $26,000 and $50,000; and 3.9% earned less than $25,000″) so maybe they’ve found a correlation between wealth and mental health diagnoses.”

There is also very little evidence to support the assumption that American Mensa members are even representative of the gifted population. To get an idea of how restricted their pool of volunteers was, consider that the population of the United States is roughly 320 million people. Approximately 2% of those people could be expected to have IQ scores of 130 or higher (Mensa membership is open to those in the top 2% of intellectual ability). That would be 6.4 million people.  American Mensa claims over 50,000 members, which represents less than 0.8% of intellectually gifted Americans.

From this study, we can conclude only that people who join Mensa (and who volunteer for studies) are more likely to report having health conditions than the general population of the United States. Indeed, the fact that the respondents reported markedly higher rates for every condition the questionnaire targeted as “related to overexcitabilities” should be a red flag. A stronger study would rely not on self-report, but on actual medical records or physiological and psychometric measures.

Issues with the conceptual model

The authors offer a conceptual model for the mechanism associating overexcitabilities with health conditions, but they fail to give any a priori operational definition for determining which health conditions are related to overexcitabilities. Indeed, they did not administer any instrument to determine the degree of overexcitability in those they surveyed. An example of this confusion is their classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):

“Because ASD is listed in the DSM-IV, we have listed it as a psychological overexcitability. However, it is also included herein as a physiological overexcitability given the immunological processes at play that have been demonstrated in the scientific literature.”

The fact is that nobody yet understands the etiology of autism, nor has anyone established a physiological or psychological basis for it. The authors are making a huge assumption by classifying ASD as any kind of overexcitability. Is any condition found in the DSM-IV (why DSM-IV?) a “psychological overexcitability”? Lacking any clear operational definition of overexcitability from the authors, we must turn to Dabrowski’s meaning of the term.  According to the authors, “[Dabrowski] found these overexcitabilities to be associated with personality development, and observed symptoms of slight neuroses among them as well, such as depression, mild anxiety, and tics.” It does not sound like Dabrowski was describing the kinds of pathology described in the DSM. In fact, he was describing something he saw as a driver of personal growth for gifted individuals. It is worrisome to see Dabrowski’s positive concept broadened and focused on pathology.

Is any condition that involves immunological processes a “physiological overexcitability”, and why only immunological processes? The authors note that chronic inflammation is associated with many medical conditions, but there is by no means a consensus regarding a causal relationship between inflammation and any of the conditions they considered to be related to overexcitability. Instead, the authors engage in some faulty reasoning: stress, autoimmune disorders, allergies, mood disorders, ASD, and so on are all correlated with inflammation. Stress is correlated to intellectual overexcitability. Intellectual overexcitability is correlated with rumination. Rumination is correlated with anxiety and depression. All of these things may be true, but correlation is not transitive.  This means that “X correlates with Y” and “Y correlates with Z” does not imply that “X correlates with Z”.

The model the authors propose is based upon a flimsy chain of unjustified reasoning. Beyond that, its most glaring deficiency is its lack of consideration of the impact of a person’s social environment on their stress level and mental health. The authors include environmental triggers in their model, but according to the diagram, they oddly do not consider the environment to be a contributor to worry, rumination, or psychological overexcitabilities. We don’t need to postulate a “hyper body” model to explain the stress that gifted people experience throughout their lifetimes as a result of their intellectual mismatch with the people around them. The simplest explanation is that gifted people have the same basic emotional needs as everyone else, but that their intellectual differences make it more difficult for them to get those needs met. 

Ask yourself whether you would expect a study to find such a strong correlation between high IQ and every condition the questionnaire asked about. Doesn’t that raise some red flags? If true, how do we explain the studies which did not find a correlation between high IQ and the health problems? Or the studies that found a link between intelligence and greater life expectancy? Why would we expect to find no link between increasing IQ and increasing health problems and then suddenly see a large effect at the cutoff point for Mensa membership? The reported rates from their questionnaire are so much higher than expected that we should look very closely at these results. In particular, we need data on the rates reported by this group for conditions that are not supposedly associated with overexcitabilities. If this result is not simply an artifact of the study methods, we should observe that Mensans do not report higher levels of diagnosis for conditions not associated with overexcitabilities, and we should be very careful to define which conditions are associated with overexcitabilities to avoid simply reclassifying everything that Mensans report as being associated with overexcitabilities! We should look very closely at any study which proposes a complex and loosely defined conceptual model which appears to explain everything.

It is important to find out if people with high IQ are more susceptible to certain health conditions or have physiological or psychological differences that could affect treatment outcomes. But we need studies that actually define overexcitabilities in measurable ways. We need studies that are well-controlled. We need studies with better samples. We need studies that include actual physiological and psychometric measures. This study did not do any of those things.

A Route from Home-Based Private School to Four-Year College (California specific)

Is traditional high school not a good fit for your student? Is your student ready for high school work, but is much younger than most high school students? The California education system is not designed for these kinds of students, but there are ways to navigate the maze of educational requirements while leaving the doors open for your student to attend college in the future. One way is to home school your student through a private school that you establish yourself. When they are ready for college level work, your student can take a test that guarantees them entrance to community college, even if they are younger than traditional college students. At the community college, they gain experience taking college classes, learn to navigate higher education systems on their own, and earn college credit. By the time they are traditional college age, they are usually ready to apply to a four-year college as either a freshman or transfer student. This post gives details on how you can help your student on this path.

First, establish your home-based private school by collecting the required documentation, then file a Private School Affidavit (PSA) online with the California Department of Education. You can start your home-based private school at any time during the school year, but the PSA portal will not be available until October. The name of your school will be the name of the high school your student will graduate from, so choose something suitable. If your student is already doing high school level work, record their grade level as “ungraded secondary” or 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. List the highest grade your school offers as twelfth grade. This allows you to register them in a variety of activities at whatever grade level is appropriate.

If your child is currently enrolled in school, whether it is a traditional public school, charter school, home school charter, or brick and mortar private school, you will need to officially withdraw your child from the school in writing. For details and sample letters, take a look at the materials at California Homeschool Network. I recommend that you obtain a California State ID card for your student since they will not have a student ID. This will serve as their photo identification for exams. Another option is a US Passport Card, which is more expensive. Don’t rely on home school student ID cards since in many cases only government issued ID cards will be accepted.

Record all high school level coursework in your student’s high school transcript. I used a free tool to create basic transcripts called Homeschool Sked Track. Also collect and record brief course descriptions and any textbooks used. This will be part of your student’s descriptive transcript, an additional document that your student will need for their four-year college applications.

When your student is ready for community college (CC) level work, have them take the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE). If they are younger than 16, list them as “Will complete tenth grade within a semester of the next test administration.” Submit a copy of your PSA along with the registration form and payment. The student’s grade on the PSA should be listed as 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. Home schools do not need an official seal or a non-family member to sign the form.  When your student passes the test, they will receive a CHSPE certificate, but do not graduate them from your home-based private school yet. Continue to file PSA yearly, every October.

Have your student register for community college classes using the CHSPE certificate and a brief transcript of whatever high school work they have completed so far. It may help to list the coursework by subject rather than by year, especially if your student has been doing high school level work for several years. It may also smooth the path to assign letter grades on a regular 4.00 scale and give your student a GPA. Your student will be treated the same as high school graduates by the community college, but you do not need to officially graduate them from your home-based private school. If you are getting resistance from a particular community college due to your student’s age, remind them that they are required to accept students with a CHSPE certificate or try a different community college. Some community colleges are more welcoming of younger students than others.

As an additional benefit of the CHPSE certificate, your student will also be eligible for paid employment without needing to obtain a work permit from your public school district. Work experience is a great way for your student to build independence and learn basic finance skills.

Record all community college work on your student’s home-based private school transcript as concurrent college level work, along with any other additional high school level work they are still doing at home. Your home-based private school is allowed to grant credit for whatever you deem appropriate. Keep the California high school graduation requirements in mind. There are multiple paths to admission to the University of California, but your student will be guaranteed a spot at some UC if they complete the a-g requirements with a good GPA. Some of these can be satisfied by Advanced Placement (AP) or SAT subject tests as well as certain community college classes. Many homeschoolers decide that they do not wish to be constrained by UC a-g requirements, which were designed primarily for public school students. Your student will still be eligible for UC through admission by exception, admission by exam, or transfer admission even if they do not complete a-g.

At least a year prior to applying to four-year colleges, your student should probably take either the ACT or the SAT. Some colleges do not require college entrance exams, but most do. If your student wants to be eligible for National Merit Scholarships, in the year prior to their final year of home schooling (ie what would correspond to their 11th grade year) they will need to take the PSAT/NMSQT. It can be difficult for home schoolers to find a high school that will administer PSAT to their student. Check with local home school groups to find out which high schools offer PSAT to home schooled students, and start early if you want to do this!

When your student is ready for a four-year college, they will either apply as a freshman or as a transfer student. This depends on how many college credits they have already earned. If your student is going to transfer, make sure they have completed all the transfer requirements. There are different transfer requirements for the University of California, California State University, and private colleges or universities.

Either way, your student should officially graduate from your home-based private school prior to four-year college. Transfer students may need to complete at least one semester of community college after graduating high school in order to qualify for transfer status.

If you wish, you may create a High School Diploma for your student yourself, or order one online from a site such as HomeschoolDiploma.com. When signed by you, this is a valid legal document. Make sure to include on your student’s high school transcript that a “High School Diploma was awarded on [date]”. Submit this final transcript to the college they will attend to along with any official community college transcripts. Your student will legally be a high school graduate even though your private home school is not accredited, with or without CHSPE. Their graduation date is not the CHSPE certificate date, it is the date you awarded them a diploma. Students who receive a CHSPE certificate are legally allowed to continue high school, either public or private (which includes private home schools) and receive a high school diploma.

Save Money with Generic Epinephrine

Have you seen the price of EpiPens lately? They are between $600-$700 for a two-pack. If you have high deductible insurance or high co-pays, you will be paying a large part of this cost. Here are some strategies you can use to find cheaper auto-injectors.

Buy Generic

Generics cost between $150-$450, and often have a lower co-pay. The generic epinephrine auto-injectors contain the same medication in a slightly different device. They are available in both 0.15 mg and 0.30 mg dosages, just like EpiPens. Pharmacies often do not tell customers about the generic option because they do not consider it equivalent based on differences in the device, but the generic auto-injector has a tried and true delivery system used by brands such as Adrenaclick and TwinJect. Generic auto-injectors are also smaller and lighter weight than EpiPen brand auto-injectors. http://www.epinephrineautoinject.com/index.php

Here’s how to get generic epinephrine auto-injectors:

1. Check with your insurance to make sure that “epinephrine injection, USP” is covered and find out what your cost will be. You may save a significant amount! Also find out how many you can buy at once and how often you can refill your prescription.

2. Call around to pharmacies in your area and find out if they carry the generic epinephrine auto-injectors. If a pharmacy doesn’t carry them, they may be able to order some for you. Compare prices between pharmacies. Try using http://www.goodrx.com/epinephrine

3. Get a prescription from your doctor that is specifically for generic epinephrine auto-injectors. Make sure you are not getting a prescription for EpiPen! Many doctors are not aware that generic epinephrine auto-injectors are available since these are not aggressively marketed like EpiPens.

4. Use $0 co-pay coupons. https://sservices.trialcard.com/Coupon/Epinephrine

5. Make sure you are getting a device that does not expire in less than 12 months. Before you leave the pharmacy counter, check the expiration dates on your devices. Epinephrine auto-injectors should last about a year (unless you use them.) You should not have to buy new ones before that.

6. If this is your first time using the generic auto-injectors, order a free training device and watch the training video on the website.

I hope this helps! Please share more tips in the comments.

Hostility Toward Gifted Children

Bullying has been in the news lately, so I’ve decided to share my family’s experience with bullying in 2007.  Here’s  a little background on the situation:

Our son M is highly gifted.  He had been attending Kindercare since he was two-and-a-half. During the 2006-2007 school year, he began the year in the PreK classroom. After Winter break, the school decided to eliminate the PreK class, and place those students together with the three and four-year-olds.  The director decided to place M (who had been reading and doing basic arithmetic since before he was three) in the Kindergarten class instead. M had turned four just a few months before he was accelerated to Kindergarten.

M seemed to be doing fine in the Kindergarten class which he attended every morning for three hours.  Keep in mind that Kindergarten is not required in California, and there were no “graduation requirements” to be met in this class. Even if there had been, M would have met them. We paid for him to be in that class, and he did the work he was given in that class.  He participated with the rest of the kindergarteners learning a song for their end-of-year party and graduation. The teacher ordered cute little caps and gowns for the kids to wear for their ceremony, and M was excited to wear his.

About a week before the party, I found this note in M’s cubby (names have been changed to protect the kids.)

Dear “M’s Parents”,

My name is Jack Hill. I’m Greg Hill’s father. I’m not sure if you know Greg. I know I’ve never met M.

Greg and Karl have been attending Kindercare since 2001, starting as babies just after the school opened. They’ve been here longer than any Kindercare employee. Brian and Nate started just a year or so later.

This Friday marks a completion for them—for Greg and Karl more so than the others. Greg and Karl will be the first children to complete a full course at this school. As tradition dictates, we mark that completion with a ceremony, including ceremonial garb and a certificate.

We do that to indicate and savor the accomplishment. We give the children a sense of achievement to carry with them in their new beginning as First Graders. We in turn are rewarded with a pride different from all the other feelings of pride we’ve felt for our child. This completion marks the beginning of our pride in watching our child become an adult.

My son tells me M will participate in the ceremony, but will not really graduate because he’s really just visiting Kindergarten. He wonders if that is right—and so do I.

Several of the kindergarten parents have asked themselves and each other the same question.

The children know that M is not really in their class. They know he won’t really be in kindergarten until next year. They know he hasn’t accomplished everything that they have. They know that when he participates in their graduation it will be pretend.

I would like you to know that your charade trivializes not only my child’s accomplishment or the other kindergartener’s, but yours as well—next year, when the accomplishment will be real. I began this letter with the intent to threaten and coerce you into doing what I think is right, but now I realize that perhaps you just didn’t know there’s really more to this ceremony than just dressing up. Perhaps you didn’t know that it had meaning for all of us.

I respectfully ask you to consider what this moment really means to you and your son. I ask you to weigh that value against tainting our children’s graduation.

I ask you simply to understand that you will be demonstrating reward for cheating to the entire 2007 kindergarten class by having your child participate in this graduation ceremony without basis.

I am asking you not to do that.

Sincerely,

Jack Hill

Now you might say that the author of this letter is obviously crazy, and should simply be ignored. However, I was concerned by the “threaten and coerce” line.  The idea that another parent (whom I had never met!) could harbor so much hostility toward my family was frightening.  My husband and I brought the letter to the director of the school who said she would talk to this parent.  Unfortunately, after talking to him she was so intimidated that she asked us not to attend the party!  We were frightened enough that we decided it wasn’t worth it to insist.  Four years later, I still feel a twinge of fear when I encounter the families named in the letter in the community.

School administrators need to be aware of hostility toward gifted students, and stand up to parents who bully other families.

Social Consequences of Food Allergy

A recent study published in Pediatrics reported that over 30% of children with food allergies say they have been bullied about their allergies.  Previous studies have also found that having a food allergy puts a child at risk for bullying.  I’d like to share my experience with raising two children with food allergies and examine why bullying is such a problem for this group.

Food sharing is one of the most basic social constants in human culture.  We use food as our social glue.  When a group shares food, we are saying we are a family, a team, a tribe.  Many cultural traditions and religious rituals involve the sharing of food.  We use it both as an offering and as a way of increasing our status within the group.  We use it as a way of connecting with one another.1  So what are the consequences when an individual cannot participate in these most basic of social interactions?  Asking this question can help us understand the social stigma of food allergies.

I have two children with anaphylactic food allergies who experienced this stigma during the time they were in public school.  When I was new to the world of food allergies, I didn’t understand why many people seemed so resistant to accommodating the needs of my children.  Why did they feel so angry about restrictions placed on bringing treats to class for holidays and birthdays?  To me, it seemed obvious that a child’s safety should be placed above custom, and yet there were a few parents and teachers who intentionally circumvented the rules, and others who obeyed, but grudgingly.  I learned that they viewed the safety rules as arbitrary barriers preventing them and their children from participating in the food sharing traditions they felt were vital for their own and their children’s social connections and standing.2

Now let’s look at the same situation from the perspective of a child with food allergies.  Whenever cupcakes were brought to class, my son was not able to eat one.  Yes, we did provide him with some other treat, but the deeper message was that he could not share what the others were eating, and was not part of the group.  Every event based on food sharing was a reminder of his separateness.  It was also a reminder that the adults in charge did not think he was important enough to be included.

An example of the kind of food sharing interaction we all take for granted:
A parent comes to the class bringing cupcakes.  Each student is offered a cupcake and enjoys the sweet treat.  The students’ trust and liking for this parent is increased.  The birthday student is a celebrity for a day, and when the other kids have their birthdays, they ask their parents to bring cupcakes.

What happens when there is a student with a food allergy in the class:
A parent brings cupcakes to class.  My son is offered a cupcake, but he must say, “No thank you, I have food allergies.”  He is allergic to egg, and these cupcakes almost certainly contain egg.  This is the first moment where the food sharing ritual breaks down.  The food allergic person is forced to refuse the offer of food.  In many cultures, refusing an offer of food is considered rude.  Even though he gives the reason (food allergies) this is often not accepted.  People become defensive, and don’t believe that the allergy is real or serious.  They offer objections: Their friend’s child is allergic to egg but can tolerate baked goods, so this cupcake is okay.   A little bit won’t hurt.  They are pretty sure the item doesn’t contain eggs, and so on. To them, his rejection of the food feels like a rejection of the person offering it.

Children with food allergies are put in the difficult social position of having to stand up to adults who are determined to give them unsafe food.  My son tries to mollify them by saying, “It’s okay, I have my own treat.”  Or he will take it and “save it for later,” but trying to avoid the stigma of the food allergy by saying that he is not hungry is not very effective because this is also seen as a rejection of the person offering the food.  Eating his own treat does not serve the same symbolic social function as sharing what everyone else is eating.  In fact, it carries the opposite meaning: he is separate, and not part of the group.  Having to refuse the offered food sends the message, “I don’t trust you, and I don’t want to be part of your group.”

Even if the food allergic student’s parents try to compensate by bringing safe food to share with the whole group, the inability to reciprocate by accepting food from others creates stigma.  When the parent of a food allergic child overcompensates by bringing multiple offers of food to the group, that is often met with resentment from the other parents who feel they are not given equal opportunities to share.  This is a no-win situation, and the resentment of the group is expressed as ostracism of the allergic child and his family.

Many times, excluding the allergic child is rationalized:

• He needs to get used to being left out because food allergies are a fact of his life.
• Kids shouldn’t feel entitled to special treatment; the world isn’t going to change for them.
• She’s used to being left out; it doesn’t bother her.
• This child’s parents are overprotective; this level of caution is unnecessary.
• Other people with food allergies can eat this, so this should be good enough for her, too.

The reality is that kids with food allergies get plenty of practice at being excluded.  Far from feeling entitled to special treatment, they internalize the message that their food allergies are a burden to others.  Children with food allergies do not take inclusion for granted.  This is especially true for children with multiple food allergies, or who are highly sensitive to the allergens.  They are at the greatest risk for stigmatization because the necessary precautions seem unusual to people.  In addition, there are many people with food allergies who are not aware of best practices for food allergy management 3, and their casual approach to the risks involved is seen as more socially acceptable.

Modeling exclusion

My daughter’s teacher once decided to bring candy to the class for Easter.  Since it was a last minute decision, the teacher didn’t take the time to ask me which candy was safe for my daughter who is allergic to peanuts.  She gave the candy to all the children, including my daughter who tried to refuse it.  When my daughter wouldn’t eat the candy, she was told she could eat a leftover part of her sandwich from her lunchbox while her classmates enjoyed the candy.  My daughter was six years old.

When adults exclude the child with food allergies, they are modeling exclusion for everyone.  They are sending a message to all the kids that it is okay to exclude the allergic child, and a message to the allergic child that they are not worth including.  Many kids with food allergies are bullied at school because of this social stigma.4  Allergic children deserve to feel safe and that their well-being is important to the adults in charge.  They deserve to have their basic needs for safety and inclusion met.

Take a moment to look at this diagram.  If it looks familiar, that is probably because it is based on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 5.  Notice that the need to belong is part of the base of the pyramid.  We are all social beings, and belonging is a basic, human need.  The power of that need is probably greatest in adolescence 6, and that is reflected in the fact that teens are at a greater risk of dying from their food allergies than younger children.  Years of social stigma take their toll, and teens may place a higher priority on inclusion than safety.  And in the school context, when kids’ basic needs are not being met, their ability to learn is compromised.

If we can bring awareness to these very human reactions, we can choose to respond differently.  We can choose to include kids with food allergies.  This is going to require effort because accommodating food allergies means conscientiously checking ingredient labels and carefully cleaning cooking utensils and surfaces.  It means talking to the child’s parents to find out what is safe.  It means accepting that those parents may not feel comfortable trusting their child’s life to home baked cupcakes, and choosing to center a party around non-food activities instead.  It means remembering that families with food allergies live with those inconveniences every day.  Most kids take being included for granted.  Imagine what it means to a child with food allergies.

What can you do?

As a parent of a child with food allergies you can:
Advocate for inclusion at school, and help raise awareness
Mitigate some of the exclusion by volunteering to share safe food
Support your child’s self-advocacy efforts

As a teacher you can:
Choose to use non-food items for class projects, manipulatives, and incentives
Promote celebrations that focus on activities rather than food
Support the self-advocacy of children with food allergies

As a parent of a child without food allergies you can:
Choose to send non-food treats for holidays and birthdays
Make an effort to include the allergic child in social events outside of school
Model compassion for kids with food allergies to your own children

References

1. Stevens JR, Gilby IC.  A conceptual framework for nonkin food sharing: timing and currency of benefits. Animal Behavior. 2004;67:603-614.

2. Fehr E, Fischbacher U, Gächter S.  Strong reciprocity, human cooperation and the enforcement of social norms.  Human Nature. 2002;13:1-25.

3. Sicherer SH, Mahr T, et al. Clinical report: Management of food allergy in the school setting.  Pediatrics. Published online Nov 29, 2010. Available at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/6/1232.full?sid=6cfbd3cf-62c3-408e-92f5-4108643fec24

4. Pitchforth E, Weaver S, Willars J, Wawrzkowicz E, Luyt D, Dixon-Woods M. A qualitative study of families of a child with a nut allergy.  Chronic Illness. Published online Aug 16, 2011.  Available at http://chi.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/08/13/1742395311411591

5. Maslow AH. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review. 1943;50:370-396.

6. Resnick ES, Pieretti MM, Maloney J, Noone S, Muñoz-Furlong A, Sicherer S. Development of a questionnaire to measure quality of life in adolescents with food allergy: the FAQL-teen. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. 2010;105(5):364-368.

This post originally appeared in The Creativity Post.

I was interviewed by Dan Peters for his Psychology Today blog

         

I decided to consolidate various blog posts here on Microscopes are Prudent, and I’d like to include a link to this blog post by Dr. Daniel Peters of Summit Center. Dr. Peters interviewed me on his From Worrier to Warrior blog in April for Autism Awareness Month about anxiety and autism.

A First-Person Perspective on Anxiety and Autism