Gifted Awareness Week Australia 2022

Saturday 21st May

Media Release

Gifted Awareness Week Australia 2022: 21 – 29 May Like Minds

On Saturday 21st May 2022, the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) will launch the 8th annual Gifted Awareness Week Australia. Many events will take place around Australia to celebrate gifted and high potential learners and raise awareness of their diverse learning needs.


"In 2022, we have grown our international Gifted Awareness Week collaboration to include New Zealand, Malaysia and Jamaica," AAEGT President Melinda Gindy stated. "This year, we have conjointly launched the theme Like Minds, acknowledging that like minds are found throughout diverse backgrounds, domains, and areas and are not always aged peers. Furthermore, this theme raises the importance of gifted individuals' social and emotional health and wellbeing."


Gifted Awareness Week Australia 2022 comes as Australia is striving to maintain its educational integrity two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Like their neurotypical peers, gifted and talented students have experienced varied responses to learning during these unprecedented times. However, for some gifted students, time away from the classroom has led to isolation from likeminded peers and the escalation of social and emotional health challenges. With social and emotional wellbeing being one of the major focuses in education today, our national community needs to make sure gifted individuals are included and supported with opportunities to connect with each other.


"Research shows us that gifted children learn best when they are appropriately challenged based on their readiness to learn. The most effective learning environment includes pairing with others of similar ability”, Mrs Gindy continued. "What we also learn from the research literature is that flourishing academically, socially and emotionally is supported by fostering a sense of belonging alongside like minds. When gifted and high potential students are valued, understood, and nurtured, they are healthy and happy".


Nina Thomas, Chair of the Gifted Awareness Week Australia Committee, reflects: "It is so very important for gifted individuals' intellectual, social and emotional health to be given opportunities to connect with like minds in various domains with different aged peers." "Gifted Awareness Week Australia is an opportunity to highlight and raise awareness that many of our gifted children should be given the opportunity to connect with each other, particularly with varying age ranges", Ms Thomas stated.


Gifted Awareness Week Australia 2022 is an opportunity to highlight and raise awareness of the need for education to include equitable gifted identification and diverse programming practices that include provision for gifted education.


Gifted Awareness Week Australia was founded in 2015 by the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) to raise awareness of the identification, support and learning needs of gifted children and to celebrate the dedication of individuals and educational bodies who are making a positive difference in the lives of gifted children and their families. Resources, including articles, blogs and event details are located at Gifted Awareness Week. The AAEGT is the peak national body for gifted and talented education in Australia. 


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the AAEGT.

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By Dr Kate Aster (Burton) May 29, 2025
By Dr Kate Aster (Burton) Gifted Awareness Week always makes me reflect on the long road we’ve travelled. It’s been a 22-year journey for me, both personally and professionally, shaped entirely by my child’s experience of being twice-exceptional in a world that didn’t know what to make of them. Like so many 2e kids, mine didn’t present the way schools expected. Yes, they were gifted. That part was obvious. But they were also anxious, highly sensitive, perfectionistic, and completely disconnected from their peers. In a classroom surrounded by same-age students and held to grade-level expectations, they were bored, overwhelmed, and starting to shut down. At home, we watched their spark dim. And yet, when I tried to advocate, not only as a parent but also as a PhD candidate specialising in giftedness at the time, no-one would listen. Not really. Every conversation felt like a dead end. Every meeting felt like it was designed to 'contain' rather than support. I was advocating relentlessly, but it was exhausting and isolating. The system just wasn’t built to respond. Then one teacher changed everything. We were lucky. Really lucky. We had all but given up. We were home schooling, when a chance phone call I made while looking for a mentor, resulted in finding someone who saw our child clearly and who was brave enough to do something about it. This teacher didn’t wait for permission. They advocated internally, organised the right assessments, and helped facilitate radical acceleration into a gifted and talented program. That decision shifted everything. Finally, our child was with peers who thought more similarly to them. They were more intellectually engaged. They received more challenging work. They entered competitions. And that challenge helped reduce their perfectionism, while the social connection improved their mental health - immeasurably. They began to feel seen and safe, and their confidence grew. They went on to graduate high school three years early - with distinction. They completed university three years early, and then received First Class Honours. Not because we pushed them, but because they were finally allowed to work in a way that suited their developmental readiness. They joined clubs, sat on committees, found their voice. All of these things that once felt completely out of reach when they were stuck at grade level and drowning emotionally. In primary school, the focus was on surviving the day. On keeping our child in one piece. This experience didn’t just change their life. It changed mine too. At the time, I wasn’t yet working in mental health. I was just desperately trying to get the system to see my child. The trauma of that experience became the catalyst for everything that followed. I completed a PhD, began publishing in the areas of giftedness and neurodiversity, and eventually became the Clinical Director of a specialist clinic supporting these children and their families. I also founded Gifted WA, nearly ten years ago now, because I didn’t want other families to go through what we did. I wanted to build a community. I wanted parents to be equipped to advocate effectively. And I wanted educators and professionals to truly understand the complexity and potential of these children. But here’s the thing: we should never have had to fight that hard. In Western Australia, we do technically have a Gifted and Talented in Public Schools Policy, but it is primarily made up of guidelines. Implementation varies widely across schools. The outcome often comes down to whether a particular teacher is willing to listen, to learn, and to act. This is why this year’s Gifted Awareness Week theme, “From Policy to Practice”, matters so much. Because even when a policy exists, if it is optional or inconsistently applied, it fails to protect the very students it’s meant to support, and families will continue to burn out trying to secure the most basic accommodations. What happened for my child should not be the exception. It should be the standard. When we get it right, when teachers and parents and professionals come together with shared understanding and a willingness to act, these students don’t just survive. They thrive. And it’s time we made that the norm. About the Author: Dr Kate Aster is the Clinical Director of Alchemy Therapy and founder of Gifted WA and My Neurodivergent Child. With almost 20 years of research experience and a decade working as a mental health professional, Kate combines clinical expertise with lived experience. She is dedicated to advocating for systemic change in gifted education and helping families and professionals meet the complex needs of twice-exceptional children.
May 28, 2025
“Gifted education doesn’t have to begin with a big budget or a new department—it starts with curiosity, conversation, and courage.”
By Rhiannon Lowrey May 27, 2025
Rhiannon Lowrey Ever tried explaining “twice exceptional” (2e)? Think of a student’s mind as a garden. For a neurotypical brain, it’s like a beautifully organised, formal garden—paths are clear, easy to navigate, garden beds are separate yet harmonious, everything flows. In contrast, a 2e mind - one that is both gifted and disabled, it is like a wild garden: overgrown in places and seemingly unkempt, not always a clear path, but full of surprising treasures once you venture inside. Though it may not look perfectly pruned, it’s just as rich in growth and wonder—just a bit more challenging to navigate. Both gardens are equally beautiful in their own unique way!
By Kim Denholm May 27, 2025
“Can you see Brian, the invisible boy? Even Mrs. Carlotti has trouble noticing him in her classroom.” - The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
By Devon Harris May 27, 2025
A parent / gifted parenting coach's perspective
By Allegra May 26, 2025
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May 26, 2025
If you're involved in supporting gifted children, it's important to understand asynchrony - also known as asynchronous development. The video below is just an example of what asynchrony can look like. Some research indicates that asynchrony can be more common, or more pronounced, in highly to profoundly gifted children. However it can occur to differing degrees, and each child is different. Take a look at this video, and resources from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and the Davidson Institute .
By Rhiannon Lowrey May 25, 2025
Developing the I AM Program at Cornish College By Rhiannon Lowrey
By Jillian Green May 25, 2025
Why do we even need gifted policy in schools? Aren’t gifted kids already ahead? These young people explain that without policy, gifted students can feel restrained, trapped, unable to grow, with “Boredom overwhelming and deep as the sea”. These students also share Stephanie Tolan’s analogy between giftedness and a cheetah. If the cheetah is not behaving and performing in ways we expect… is it still a cheetah? "If the cheetah is only 6 weeks old and cannot yet run, it is only a 'potential cheetah?" Please take a look. (You can also learn more about Stephanie Tolan's cheetah analogy here https://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm )
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