Category: Understanding Intelligence
Does Early Genius Guarantee a Successful Life?
Why don’t all gifted children get rich or turn into emotionally healthy, high achieving adults? That was the question I had that motivated me not only to study giftedness but to answer as many questions as possible about how their early giftedness affected their adult lives. I’d done a retrospective longitudinal study with highly gifted […]
Neurodiversity? Huh? What’s That?
… and how does it fit into the picture of giftedness? One of my roles in life has been to be the one who asks the questions others wanted to ask but who were hesitant to ask themselves for fear of looking stupid. So they didn’t ask and sometimes pretended not to have a question […]
Am I an Intelligent Woman?
How Would I know? The answer depends on whom you ask and at what time in her life. I had many assumptions about my future when I was a student at Ohio Wesleyan: I’d become an elementary school teacher, I’d marry and have children, and I’d become a school principal while raising my family. My […]
What is Giftedness?
Do you ever wonder if you’d recognize it? This new book will help readers more fully understand what giftedness is and isn’t. I’m pleased to present a new book that will be published by 5LoG Press on October 24, 2024. How do we enable each gifted person to embark on a positive, authentic life trajectory […]
Being a Genius or Gifted Child Prodigy Assures Success! Right?
Why don’t all gifted children get rich or turn into high functioning adults? I knew when I was in 2nd grade that I would be a teacher and then I’d advance to being a principal. Then I had children. Oops! That threw pretty much everything off as far as planning goes. I needed to figure […]
Gifted People Are Still People
… and many of our feelings are shared by others. Anyone old enough to remember watching Cheers in 1982—and you can still watch it in reruns—will remember when Nicholas Colasanto, who played Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso on the first couple years of the series “Cheers,” said some very magic words to his daughter, Lisa. She was […]
How Smart You Are Is Relative
How smart you are is relative. It depends on who else is there. I show you three examples from my own life about how confused many people can get when they don’t understand how serious an issue this relativity thing is. It can be a great parenting tool for parents with gifted children because it […]
Who Is Gifted?
Who is gifted? And what does it mean to be gifted? Did you know that there are at least two very different ways of seeing giftedness? The most popular way, and pervasive way, includes grade-getting, being and good and cooperative student, and having a successful career, e.g. it is prestigious and makes a lot of […]
What the Heck Is Neurodiversity?
What the heck is neurodiversity? … and how does it fit into the picture of giftedness? The word “neurodiversity” seems to come up a lot these days. Is the condition new or is this just a new name for something that’s been around a long time? Does it help people—the parents, teachers, therapists, individuals—to understand […]
Positive Disintegration Podcast
Dr. Ruf was a guest on the Positive Disintegration podcast in January, 2024. In the episode, Chris and Emma talked with Dr. Deborah Ruf, author of the award-winning book 5 Levels of Gifted. In 2023, she released a follow-up book called The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us. Their conversation […]