Prof. Dr. Éva Gyarmathy

 

E-mail: gyarmathy.eva@gmail.com

Mobile: +36 30 911 9677

Website: www.diszlexia.hu

 

 

Curriculum vitae

1958 Born in Budapest

1985 Graduate in psychology at Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest

1991 Postgraduate in educational psychology at Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest                                         

1986- 1992  School psychologist in a primary school                                                      

1992- Researcher at Research Institute for Psychology of  Hungarian Academy of Sciences

1992- Committee member of the Hungarian Association for Gifted

1992- Member of the European Council for High Ability

1993-1998 Lecturer at University of Debrecen

1996 Ph.D. degree at University of Debrecen

1999- Senior researcher at Research Institute for Psychology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences                                          

1999- Lecturer at Eötvös Lórand University, in Budapest

2000- Psychotherapist at the Semmelweis University Hospital for Psychiatry

2001-2004 Lecturer at University of Szeged

2004-2007   Lecturer at the Semmelweis University

2007 Clinical psychologist degree at the University of Pécs

2008 Hungarian delegate at the World Council for Gifted and Talented

2008-2018 Senior Lecturer at Budapest Technical College, now University Budensis                                                                             

2011 Founder and president of the Special Needs Talent Support Council

2013 International Advisory Board Member of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry

2014 Lecturer at the University of Szeged

2018- Teacher at Apor Vilmos Catholic College

2021- University professor

Current activities

cognitive psychology, intelligence, creativity, giftedness, dyslexia, specific learning difficulties, ADHD, autism spectrum, atypical development, information processing, multilingualism and dyslexia, , conduct disorders, personality disorders  

Selected publications:

·       Gyarmathy E. (2015) Accessibility and personalization. The Literacy Project and the universal design approach. 9th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, 2018. http://library.iated.org/publications/INTED2015

·       Gyarmathy E. (2016) The talent's netting way of thinking. Gifted Educational International, 32, May. pp 148-164.

·       Gyarmathy E, Senior, J. (2016) The inclusion of multiple exceptional gifted students in talent development programmes.  Interaction synthesis of both provision form and content. Gifted Education International July 11, doi: 10.1177/0261429416656500

·       Gyarmathy E (2020) Motivated or Unmotivated for the Creative Approach. Values from a highly able learner's point of view. In Socio-Emotional Development and Creativity of Gifted Students. Eds. Fernanda Hellen Ribeiro Piske, Tania Stoltz, Alberto Rocha, Cristina Cristina Costa-Lobo. Coimbra University Press, pp. 211-235.

·       Gyarmathy E (2020) Multi-sided Dyslexia – The age of the entrepreneurs with new reading abilities. In. (Eds.) Barbara Pavey, Neil Alexander-Passe, and Margaret Meehan: Entrepreneurship, Dyslexia, and Education. Research, Principles and Practice. Routledge Education. pp. 141-158

·       Gyarmathy Éva (2021) Tehetségfejlesztés. Lehetőségek kezdőknek és haladóknak. Tea Kiadó, Budapest.

·       Senior, J., Gyarmathy E. (2021) AI and Developing Human Intelligence: Future Learning and Educational Innovation. Routledge, New York.

 

 

Research projects

INCLUTECH EUROPE Erasmus+ program, 2015

Inclusion in Europe through Knowledge and Technology

 

SupEFL  Erasmus+ programme 2014-1-DE02-KA200-001093

Self-Help in English as a Foreign Language for Learners with Specific Learning Differences

 

RoboBraille Smart Alternate Media HU-2013- Leo-PA-6117

Adaptation of the Robobraille and other free software systems for the support of the education.

 

LITERACY: Online Portal for E-learning and Supporting Social Inclusion of People with Dyslexia.

Information and Communication Technologies Collaborative Project

7th Framework programme, Grant Agreement Number 288596

 

RoboBraille HU-2011-Leo-PA-6018

Adaptation of the Robobraille system for the support of different groups with disadvantages

 

DysTEFL - 518466-LLP-1-2011-1-PL-COMENIUS-CMP

Dyslexia for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

 

DYSLEXIA VETO - Leonardo da Vinci Program: Transnational Project: UK/09/LLP-LdV/TOI-163_259

Dyslexia Friendly Quality Mark for Vocational, Education and Training Organisations

 

Embedding Dyslexia-Responsive Practices in Lifelong Learning

EMBED – Leonardo Programme, 143756-HU-2008-KA4-KA4MP

 

ISHEDS – 144878-TEMPUS-1-2008-1-UKTEMPUS-JPGR

Identification and Support in Higher Education for Dyslexic Students

 

ADystrain – Leonardo Programme A/06/B/F/PP-158.327

Train the trainers for the Dyslexic Work World

 

CallDysc – 229647 - CP -1-2006-1- HU – MINERVA – MPP

Collaborative Additional Language E-learning for dyslexic Pupils

 

Include – Leonardo Da Vinci Programme 2005-2007 [UK/05/B/F/PP-162_331]

Including dyslexics through European partnership

 

Dystrain – 1099031-CP-1-2003-UK-MINERVA-M

Teaching the dyslexic learner using computers to learn

 

Minerva Projekt 101100-CP-1-2002-1-UK-MINERVA-M

Az információs technológia biztosítása és használata európai egyetemi hallgatók részére

 

Research grants

Catholic University of Nijmigen, Prof. Franz Mönks, Nethelands,

1994

University of Surrey, Dr John M Everatt, UK

2001

 

International co-opearations

1999-2002

University of Surrey, John Everatt, Ian Smythe

- International Dyslexia Test

 

2000-2001

University of Cambridge, Kenneth O. Turner

Underachievement

International course in underachievement in Cambridge, 2001.

 

2000-2002

University of Surrey, John Everatt, Ian Smythe

Multilingualism and dyslexia

 

University of Surrey, UK, John Everatt, Ian Smythe

Comparative studies of dyslexia

Learning styles and specific learning difficulties

Adult dyslexia treatment

 

University of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Small Business and Enterpreneurship, Wien, Österreich. Petra Rietsch

Adult dyslexia treatment

 

2007-

Kolozsvári Babes-Bólyai Egyetem, Raduly-Zörgő Éva

A tanulási zavarok és hiperaktivitás kezelése

 

2008-2009

University of Newport, UK, Prof Amanda Kirby

Treatment of ADHD

 

University of Urbino, Giovanni Torrisi

Diszlexiások idegen nyelv tanulásaösszehasonlító vizsgálatok

A diszlexia szociális hatásai az ICT terjedésével

 

Babes-Bólyai Egyetem, Kolozsvár - Prof. Szamosközi István, dr. Ráduly-Zörgő Éva

A tanulási zavarok kezelése a felsőoktatásban

Diszlexiások idegen nyelv tanulása különböző nemzetiségi helyzetben.

Tehetséggondozás

Alulteljesítő tehetségek kurzus

 

2012 -

B&M InterNets, s.r.o. Mr Jaromir BOGR

- Online e-learning for dyslexics

 

UNIVERSITAET WIEN Mr Heinz ENGL, Vice Rector for Research and Career Development

- Dyslexia personas

 

ANIMA SCAN LTD established in ASHDOD - ISRAEL, Mr Semion KERTZMAN, Chief Scientific Officer

- Online assessment for dyslexic adults

 

CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY in ISRAEL, Gila BEN HAR.

- Online assessment methods

 

PEDAGOGICKO-PSYCHOLOGICKA PORADNA BRNO Mr Libor MIKULASEK,

Headmaster

- Online e-learning for dyslexics

 

Lecturing

University of Budensis

-      Special need students

-      Talent provision

-      Assertivity and creativity

 

West-Hungary University

·       Underachievement

·       Talents and creativity

Eötvös Loránd University

·       Psychology of the talent development

·       Underserved gifted

·       Creativity

Semmelweis University:

·       Mental health skills and self-knowledge

 

University of Szeged

·       Psychology of the talent development

·       Specific learning difficulties

Haynal Imre Health Study University

·       Achievement tests

 
University of Debrecen

·       Psychology of the talent development

·       Underserved gifted

·       Creativity

 

 

 

Abstracts of some publications:

Gyarmathy É. (2014) A nem szunnyadó erő. A tehetség fogalmának átgondolása. Neveléstudomány Online.

Title: The never dormant power.

appearances of the gifted, motivation, creativity, high abilities

To consider the giftedness to be homogeneous and not to separate the methods proper for different talent development can be the barrier of the provision. The fine elements of the socio-cultural background have to be considered as well as the age and the form of the giftedness should be differentiated, because they need very different environment. Number of factors and their delicious coincidence has to be detected as an additional step. The provision of the gifted can be truly effective if it can rely on a credible scientific background. Even just slightly false theories lead to wrong directions.

This study based on Hungarian and international literature is to show the diversity of the talent, the significance and role of its components, and to prove why the talent is not dormant and hidden, but an active path-seeker.

 

Gyarmathy Éva, Renate Motschnig, Ján Struhár, Dominic Hagelkruys, (2013) Diszlexiás fiatalok 21. századi lehetőségekkel. In (Szerk) Tóth Péter: Empirikus kutatások a szakmai pedagógusképzésben. Kutatási Füzetek X. 117-138.

dyslexic youth, creativity, ICT usage

Title: Dyslexic youth with 21th century opportunities

In our study, we designed questionnaires and interviews in order to find out about the needs of dyslexic adolescents, young adults and adults that help their integration. The basis for the relevance of the studies directed at issues important in vocational education is the constantly increasing number of dyslexics, on the one hand, and the opportunities offered by an international project, on the other hand.

Project Literacy is based on the above approach. It builds on creativity, the strength of dyslexics, and uses a significant component of today's culture, namely, info-communication as its medium. Our study corroborated that creativity is very much present in the self-reflection of dyslexics, and they would welcome such an opportunity to use it. It also became clear that the use of info-communication tools presents no problems, but the attitude of dyslexics toward online community self-help is ambiguous. This particular service should therefore be heavily rethought.

The study, once again, established that dyslexics do not need a protective, condescending and weakening environment with waivers and exemptions. The short case descriptions demonstrated some of the problems and coping / non-coping strategies which may appear even within the bounds of a short questionnaire.

The social benefit from the integration of dyslexics and the realization thereof no more belongs to the future. A company in Birmingham is expressly looking for dyslexic employees, because it sees added value in the creative thinking they bring into their work.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2010) Atipikus agy és a tehetség II. - Az átütő tehetség és a tehetségvizsgálatok ma. Pszichológia. 30, 1, 31–41.

Title: Atypical brain and the gifted II. - The profoundly gifted and recent studies of gifted.

Keywords: profoundly gifted, assessment, atypical brain

The ideal gifted of the 20th century is a gifted person who is able to fit in, someone whose outstanding abilities and creativity can be diagnosed with tests. Gift, however, is not measurable. There an increasing amount of evidence that even thoroughly elaborated methods can fail in the case of people with atypical cerebral structure, in the case of exceptions, the idiosyncratic minority, the number of whom is increasing, and of whom many can be able of outstanding achievements. The first and foremost stumbling-block in the diagnosis of giftedness is creativity. Creative power essentially resists identification. Something is creative by the very fact that it transcends the existent. Creative people appear as a disorder in most cases. The unbalanced profile of abilities and the manifestation of an idiosyncratic personality, characteristic of the exceptionally gifted, render traditional assessment methods unreliable and unsuitable for identifying the gifted.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2010) A tehetséggondozás pszichológiája. Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle, 65. 2. 221-232.

Title: Psychological issues in the provision for the gifted

Keywords: provision of the gifted, tests of the intelligence, psychiatric diagnosis, creativity

Gift is not simply about exceptional abilities, but crucially involves a special kind of approach and attitude, the basis of which lies in a nervous system allowing for unusual modes of perception and ways of reaction that pave the way to outstanding achievements. This is a deviation that is often annoying for the society and may thus give rise to problems of integration. As a consequence, it is generally the „average gifted” that can be identified as gifted — those who have exceptional abilities and differ from the average only to an extent still tolerated by their environment. Regular procedures — whether assessments, teaching methods or socializing effects—are less effective in the case of truly ingenious thinkers, because these procedures are all fitted for the average or near average.

 

Torrisi, G, Gyarmathy E. (2010 ) The new disabilities of ICT. ICT for Languge Learning. International Conference. Pixel. http://www.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL2010/common/download/Proceedings_pdf/IBL15-Torrisi,Gyarme.pdf

Keywords: ICT, dyslexia, disadvantage

Any new technology brings with it a new power for those who can use it, and a new

disability for those who cannot. Once the use of telephones became a standard procedure, people who could not use it acquired a new disability. The same applies to any new technology. Since most of the social web relies on written words, people affected by dyslexia will experience a new stronger disability as the use of web 2.0 widens. The more people take for granted the use of the social and semantic web, the more their expectation will grow regarding the normality of its use. Those who cannot use it properly will be excluded. As ICT extends its reach beyond our own language borders, it births a hindrance. This impediment takes the form of an additional disability for people with impaired abilities learning second languages, especially English.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2009) Atipikus agy és a tehetség I. - Tehetség és a neurológia hátterű teljesítményzavarok valamint az Asperger szindróma. Pszichológia.

Title: Atypical brain and the gifted I. Giftedness and the neurologically based achievement disorders and the Asperger syndrome

Special cognitive structure, persistent and obsessive practice, commitment and a lack of social skills are all phenomena often mentioned in connection with people of outstanding giftedness. In most cases, these arise as a result of a cerebral structure that differs significantly from the usual.

Among the specially gifted, atypical cerebral structure is more the rule than the exception. It is not only the highly intelligent who display special cerebral structure; many of the great creators, irrespective of their level of intelligence, show atypical cerebral structure, which is usually associated with some kind of dysfunction.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2009) Atipikus agy és a tehetség II. - Az átütő tehetség és a tehetségvizsgálatok ma. Pszichológia.

Title: Atypical brain and the gifted II. - The profoundly gifted and recent studies of gifted.

The giftedness ideal of the 20th century is a gifted person who is able to fit in, someone whose outstanding abilities and creativity can be diagnosed with tests. Giftedness, however, is not measurable. There an increasing amount of evidence that even thoroughly elaborated methods can fail in the case of people with atypical cerebral structure, in the case of exceptions, the idiosyncratic minority, the number of whom is increasing, and of whom many can be able of outstanding achievements.

The first and foremost stumbling-block in the diagnosis of giftedness is creativity. Creative power essentially resists identification. Something is creative by the very fact that it transcends the existent. Creative people appear as a disorder in most cases. The unbalanced profile of abilities and the manifestation of an idiosyncratic personality, characteristic of the exceptionally gifted, render traditional assessment methods unreliable and unsuitable for identifying the gifted.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2009) Kognitív Profil Teszt. Iskolakultúra 3-4.

Title: Cognitive Profile Test

The Cognitive Profile Test gives a differentiated map of the abilities that are crucial in the school achievement. The advantage of the test is that it is relatively short. It doesn't need a psychologist. Trained teachers can use it effectively.

Almost all the tasks can be used in all ages, even for adults. That way it is possible to follow the changes of the abilities.

Most of the tasks could be formed to an internet based online test which gives an easy collection of the data. In our research we examined the correlations of the results gained by traditional paper-pencil testing and internet based testing. We examined how the ICT skills and the less writing influence the test results.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2007) Diszlexia. Specifikus tanítási zavar. Lélekben Otthon Kiadó, Budapest.

Title: Dyslexia. Specific Teaching Difficulties

The aim of the book is to present an approach and some essential information that renders it possible to prevent and effectively deal with the syndrome called dyslexia.

The „traditional learning disability” part of the book provides a historical overview of this topic and an outline of this syndrome. The reader is introduced to the syndrome, which has been known for centuries by professionals, and which is receiving more and more attention. In the second part of the book, an alternative approach to the development and treatment of dyslexia is presented. There is a large emphasize on the role of environmental factors. The disability is regarded as a function of changing external factors. This approach implies that manipulating environmental factors can substantially influence the problem of dyslexia. In the third part, I review efficient solutions to prevention and to treat the development of partial skills, while the fourth part is dedicated to school skills. Both parts focus on methods of treating and particularly of preventing dyslexia through everyday activities. The last part is about techniques that can make life easier for dyslexics in the adulthood.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2007) A tehetségHáttere és gondozásának gyakorlata. ELTE Kiadó, Budapest.

Title: Giftedness – Background and practice

The book is on the theory and practice of the provision of the gifted. It leads the reader through the background of the way to high achievements. It starts with the characteristics of the gifted person from the infant to the adult. There is an overview on the recent provision of the gifted, and some possibilities are shown to improve and to broaden the thinking and practice of the everyday provision of the gifted. The main body of the book is to show the definition, role and training possibilities of the ability part of giftedness: creativity and problem solving. Trainings to develop abilities are reviewed for the practice. There are new ways that can give new solutions for the provision of the gifted. These new ways are analyzed. The last chapter of the book is to show and analyze the role of the personal factor. Parents, teachers, peers and other important others are in the background of the high achievements. The mentorship is a kind of mixture of these roles. The experiences on the personal connection, social the background of the gifted is summarized. The book has been prepared for anybody interested in the topic. However mainly specialists, students and PhD candidates can benefit by it.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2006) A tehetségfogalma, összetevői, típusai, azonosítása. ELTE Kiadó, Budapest.

Title: Giftedness – concept, components, types, identification

The book is to draw a wide picture on the topic of giftedness. It is a processing of the literature. The first chapter is on the concept of giftedness. The second one deals with the inner components, intelligence, creativity and motivation. The next chapter is on the types of giftedness. There is a chapter on the accentuated areas of giftedness, like art, music, math, linguistic, sport and social-leader giftedness. The last chapter is an introduction to the identification of the gifted persons.

The book has been prepared for anybody interested in the topic. However mainly specialists, students and PhD candidates can benefit by it.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2004) Research on Dyslexia in Hungarian. (Ed) Smythe, I., Everatt, J. and Salter, R.: International Book of Dyslexia. A cross language comparision and practice guide. John Wiley & Sons, London. 123-132

The study deals with the results of the research on dyslexia in Hungary. Firstly Hungarian language has been analyzed from the aspect of dyslexia. Hungarian is a rather transparent however agglutinative language. Thus on one hand it is easy for dyslexics to learn to read in Hungarian, on the other hand it is difficult considering the very long words that have to be analyzed. Many research have been conducted to study reading errors to understand different types of dyslexia. There are special reading and spelling errors that are characteristic in Hungarian language beside those errors that are common in many languages.

Beyond the language specific results on dyslexia more recent research areas has been mentioned, like cognitive processing, morphological and psychophysiological issues.

 

Gyarmathy É. & Vassné Kovács E. (2004) Dyslexia in Hungary. (Ed) Smythe, I., Everatt, J. and Salter, R.: International Book of Dyslexia. A guide to practice and resources. John Wiley & Sons, London. 116-121.

The paper has been demonstrated the different types and levels of treatment of dyslexia in Hungary. The practical approach of dyslexia has been put forward. Prevention, therapy, issues of integration, teacher training and laws in Hungary has been reviewed and analyzed. Some new perspectives have been described, too.

 

Gyarmathy É. (2002) IQ és tehetség. Pszichológiai Szemle Könyvtára 5. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. 127-154.

Title: IQ and Giftedness

The study deals with the conception of giftedness in connection and relation to the intelligence and the IQ. Firstly the definition of intelligence, then its connection to the giftedness and creativity is examined. The models of giftedness are analyzed with considerable emphasis on the role of intelligence in the different approaches. Afterwards the measure of mental abilities is discussed briefly, and the role of the IQ in the identification of giftedness and other possible methods are described.

The study deals with some irregular and underachiever gifted groups, because the special cases may bring new aspects in the understanding of exceptional mental achievements. The results of research studies prove that the giftedness is not simply the complex entirety of the abilities, but specific group of behaviours.

In the last part of the study as an illustration of the complex connections of the IQ and giftedness the abilities of highly able persons with specific learning difficulties and of child prodigies, plus the savant syndrome are analyzed.

Keywords: high ability, intelligence, IQ
 

Gyarmathy É. (2002) Alulteljesítő tehetségesek. Az általánostól a különösig. Pszichológia különszáma, Gondolat, Budapest. 251-275.

Title: Underachiever gifted

This study describes the problem of the underachievement in gifted persons. It is an overview of the results of the author’s last years’ research.

According to the recent view on this population there are more different groups of the underachiever gifted persons. The young children hardly get special provision. Because of the social preconceptions highly able girls are less recognized as gifted than boys. Thus they receive less help and reinforcement, so they miss these important supports. Gifted children of national minorities and those socially disadvantaged are underrepresented in the programmes designed to gifted children. The main reason of their underachievement is their rather parallel, holistic information processing. Similarly gifted children with specific learning difficulties are more effective when stimuli are given simultaneously. Thus these populations are disadvantaged in the school, where analytic, step-by step, sequential processing is the leading approach applied in teaching and learning.

After examining many children with specific learning difficulties a particular profile of giftedness and specific learning difficulties can be separated based on the the Hungarian version of WISC-R subtests. Thus this test can be a useful tool in the assessment of these children.

A rarely mentioned reason of the underachievement is the lack of a significant person in these children’s life. Usually an important person can be found in the background of every gifted. The interviews with parents shed light on those factors that support the development, as well as on the possible consequences of the catalyzing person, especially when this person is missing from the life of a highly able child.

Keywords: underachievement, high abilities, assessment, provision
 

Smythe, I, Gyarmathy É. & Everatt, J. (2002) Olvasási zavarok különböző nyelveken: egy nyelvközi kutatás elméleti és gyakorlati kérdései. Pszichológia, (22), 4, 387-406.

Reading difficulties on different languages: theoretical and practical issues of a cross-linguistic study

In this article we introduce the first phase of an international cross linguistic study, currently in progress in many countries, designed to examine the manifestation of dyslexia indifferent languages and scripts.

In this introductory study we discuss the main questions issues of our theory. These include: an international overview of the definitional issues in dyslexia, the identification of dyslexia, application of appropriate criteria, development of the methodology to use in this international research.

On the basis of these points we devise the starting points and main hypotheses:

1) There is a core of common cognitive factors that should be assessed in dyslexic individuals in order to understand their difficulties, irrespective of language or script. These must include measures of : phonological awareness, auditory short term memory, visual short term memory, rate of processing, lexical access.

2) The relative importance of these components in dyslexia will vary in accordance with the demands of the different orthographies and scripts.

In order to assess these hypotheses, a battery of tests was developed and adapted to different languages and scripts to identify and compare the cognitive deficits associated with reading and spelling difficulties either in monolingual or in multilingual contexts.

In the last part of the article we give a brief presentation of the initial results, which form the basis of further investigations.
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) Special Persons in the Early Years of Gifted Children. Mentors and some of their effects. Educating Able Children, Volume 5, May. 13-18.

Special effects, which may help or at least influence the development of giftedness is analyzed through statistical data and case studies in this article. Not only the traits of positively nurturing background, but all effects that play important role in the development is part of the study.

Results show, that children's mental abilities measured by Raven Test developed differently in normal and high ability groups. Social-economical factors played more important role in the development of the high ability group than in the normal population. At the abler children poor educational environment led to a larger decrease in intelligence test scores compared to average children.

In almost every interview some special effects what could be essential in the further development can be found. There are special effects, illness or disabilities, what cause different, but very strong influence on the later achievement. It is demonstrated in the pair-matched case studies how some of the children could develop their abilities in spite of the serious problems and rather gain from their disadvantages. The role of an "important other" seems to be crucial. The social-cultural background seems to determine the possibilities in the most cases.

Keywords: gifted, environmental effects, development
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) A képzőművészeti, zenei és matematikai tehetség pszichológiai vonatkozásai. Erdélyi Pszichológiai Szemle, 2001,2,2: 37-65.

Psychological aspects of talents in art, music and mathematics

The article provides an overview of the references in three areas of giftedness. The characteristics, development, identificational and developmental possibilities of talents in art, music and mathematics is analyzed. The environmental effects and some special aspects of the areas, such as savant syndrome and its connection to the giftedness shows a broad view of these specific talents.

Keywords: giftedness, art, music, mathematics
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) A tehetségről. Arany János Tehetséggondozó Program, Miskolc.

About giftedness

The book is an overview of the references on giftedness. The history of the approach and the models on the giftedness is described in the first chapter. The next chapter shows the different typology of giftedness. There is a chapter on some main inner components of giftedness, like intelligence, creativity and motivation. The characteristics and development of special talents in art, music, mathematics and social areas is analyzed through the references in a chapter. The last chapter shows the difficulties and possibilities of the identification of giftedness. The book is for specialists interested in giftedness and/or studying and practicing gifted provision.

Keywords: gifted, overview
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) Projektkönyv. Tehetséggondozó projektek készítése és használata. Arany János Tehetséggondozó Program, Miskolc.

Project book - Creating and using projects in the provision of the gifted

The book is for specialists interested in giftedness and/or studying and practicing gifted provision. After the overview of the relevant references the book gives a description of the possible ways of gifted provision and the project method. The second part of the book provides a step by step guide to creating and using projects in the gifted provision. The third part of the book consists of project created by teachers and trainee teacher students. The projects are set in catalogue to help users to find appropriate material for the everyday teaching or enrichment programmes.

Keywords: gifted, project, provision
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) Gondolattérkép. TaníTani, 18-19. 108-115. old.

Mind Map

The Mind Map method is described in this article. There is a brief introduction to the creating and using the method, and some areas where the method is especially useful, such as the teaching of children with specific learning difficulties or low socio-economical background.

Keywords: Mind Map, underachievement, specific learning difficulties
 

Gyarmathy É. (2001) A tehetséggondozás szerepe egy változó értékrendű társadalomban. In (szerk.) Tordai A. és Zádor E.: Az iskola, mint az esélyteremtés, felemelkedés eszköze. OM. 243-250.

Role of the provision of the gifted in a society with changing values

There are more and more underachievers not only among the gifted population, but in the overall student population The effects of the value changes of students in the last decade are analyzed in this chapter. The results show that the value of the hard work decreased dramatically, while the intellectual values are relatively stable. These phenomena have a significant effect on the gifted provision. The high level achievement requires not only high abilities, but persistent hard work, much motivation and commitment. The direction of values changes doesn’t support the highly able children to dedicate their time to long lasting and tiring study.

Keywords: gifted, underachievement, values
 

Gyarmathy É. (2000) Holistic learners. Identifying gifted children with learning disabilities. An experimental perspective. In. Ed. Montgomery, D.: Able Underachievers. Whurr Publishers, London 76-88.

Almost 300 children were examined who are poor in some basic abilities, but have an exceptional intellectual and creative potential. Their irregular information processing which may differentiate this group from the average learning disabled and from gifted children without learning disabilities were analyzed.

The findings show a strong tendency to prove the assumption, that LD children use a different approach in their information processes, and this approach can be very effective in creative work. Tasks based on that differentiation might identify highly able learning-disabled children, and give a way also to their education.

Keywords: gifted, learning disability, identification, information processing
 

Gyarmathy É. (2000) Tanulási zavarok, átlagon felüli intelligencia és a MAWI-GY. Pszichológia (20) 3. 243-270.

Specific learning difficulties, high intelligence and the revised Hungarian version of HAWIK

After an overview on the nature of the special learning difficulties the revised Hungarian version of the HAWIK (WISC) and its subtests are analyzed from the perspective of measuring abilities of children with special learning difficulties in this study. The disability is hardly identificable when highly intelligent children with specific learning disabilities are examined. They can compensate their lacks, but in some tasks the disability hinders them, thus also their high potential is covered. However there are some cues, that we can use in the Wechsler IQ tests to identify the disabilites and high intelligence. The Digit Span and often the Arithmetic results are poor. Especially when the series of number in reversed order have to be repeated these children show a very low ability. Meanwhile they are bright in other subtests like Similarities and often in Picture Arrangement. Some case studies are shown to demonstrate the ways the children react on the different test situations, and the ways the methods can be used for getting appropreate picture of the child's ability.

Keywords: Wechsler's Scales, high abilities, special learning difficulties, identification
 

Gyarmathy É. & Ian Smythe (2000) Többnyelvűség és olvasási zavarok. Erdélyi Pszichológiai Szemle, December. 63-76.

Multilingualism and dyslexia

There is little material available for the effective assessment and teaching provision for the multilingual dyslexic individual. The purpose of this article is to explore and understand the specific needs of this client group. The task of assessing a multilingual individual is both complex and challenging. However, with an appropriate framework, it is possible to determine many of the key areas of difficulty, and build an appropriate teaching and support programme, similar to that one would use with the monolingual dyslexic.

It is possible that some languages can be so different that the same underlying cognitive processing abilities may lead to different problems in different languages and scripts. For this reason it is more thorough, where possible, to assess in both languages. Further research will involve development of a model to improve the understanding of dyslexia in different languages. Cross cultural studies started in the UK to acknowledge similarities and differences between language contexts, and to receive a deeper insight in the linguistic abilities of multilingual dyslexics. Similar research work is now planned with Rumanian-Hungarian and Slovakian-Hungarian bilingual individuals.

Keywords: multilingualism, dyslexia, languages, assessing
 

Gyarmathy É. (1999) Pszichológiai szempontok az iskolai képességfejlesztésben. Új Pedagógiai Szemle XLIX. Évfolyam, 12. 27-31.

Psychological considerations in the improvement of the abilities in the school

The article is an answer to the question about the Hungarian education. The factual knowledge centrical school can’t give long-term solution to the challenges caused by the changes. The facts alone don’t provide enough base for the next generation to solve problems. The fast changes require flexibly movable knowledge, abilities to learn new abilities. Thus school should teach to learn and to choose from the many possibilities. The other challenge for the schools is the changed student population. There are less average children, more very bright and dull. The polarization in the society changed the abilities of the children. Children from wealthy families have much more sources to develop, meanwhile children from low-income families lag behind. School can’t help either extremity. Similarly the education could not answer to the problem of the increased number learning disabled children. More and more children are rated not teachable. Private schools shoulder some of these children, but there isn’t an overall solution to this problem. Changes in the educational administration, changes in the mind of the governors should be the first step in the renewing of the instruction, otherwise as many times before, reforms could not alter basically the Hungarian schools.

Keywords: school instruction, gifted, specific learning difficulties, educational methods
 

Gyarmathy É. (1998) Tehetség és a tanulási zavarokkal küzdő kiemelkedő képességű gyerekek. Magyar Pedagógia, 2. szám, 135-153.

Giftedness and children with specific learning difficulties

Despite of the theories’ expectance of the various forms of appearance of giftedness, there are very few tools to realize the identification and promotion of the irregular gifted people in the everyday practice.

Disadvantages arisen from external, environmental or internal, individual reasons may hinder the appearance of the potential before it could even start to develop. If the identification do not occur, those who belong to the special groups of gifted individuals are deprived even of the support which the appreciation of the abilities might provide.

Identification of learning disabled children is difficult from more reasons. Their structure of abilities is unbalanced. Measuring these abilities by different methods we might get entirely different results according to the functions that are emphasized at the given tools. Combination of methods, long lasting observation and appropriate challenging tasks may better the effectiveness of recognition. Nevertheless test like methods which are suitable to identify high abilities despite the deficits are needed.

However a great leap forward is possible merely when those who deal with the topic, teachers, psychologists and other experts will accept the great variety of giftedness, unrecognized even the learning disabled gifted children’s possibilities and needs.

Keywords: gifted, learning disability, identification
 

Gyarmathy É. (1998) Tanulási zavarok szindróma a szakirodalomban. Új Pedagógiai Szemle, XLVIII. évf. 1998/10. 59-68.

Specific learning difficulties – an overview of the literature

The article gives a survey of the international literature on specific learning difficulties. The changes in definitions are followed, different trends of theories like neuropsychological, perception and perceptuomotor, psycholinguistic and behaviourist theories are described.

The main trends of identification methods, as well as the different groups and types of specific learning difficulties show that the syndrome has many roots and appearance. Specific learning difficulties can’t be considered as a homogeneous phenomenon, and its therapy has to fit to the given symptoms.

Keywords: specific learning difficulties, identification, survey of the literature
 

Gyarmathy É. (1998) Tanulási zavarok azonosítása és kezelése az óvodában és az iskolában. Új Pedagógiai Szemle, XLVIII. évf. 1998/11. 68-76

Early identification and remediation of specific learning difficulties

The paper describes a complex material to prepare nursery teachers for treating specific learning difficulties in the everyday practice.

The material consists of four parts. In the first, rather theoretical part teachers get acquainted with the syndrome - origin, causes, symptoms and remediation possibilities. The second part is a preparing part. Teachers get practical information how to identify deficits, even if they are hardly recognizable. They get to know also the simple activities children need to develop their basic abilities for school-work. They learn the basic rules of the small group training, too. There is a collection of exercises and games in the third part of the material. It is to start everyday developmental work. Teachers learn to use them, and also to collect or create more elements to the collection. The basic elements of the collection are grouped according to the abilities they are intended to develop. The fourth part is very similar to the previous, but instead of games and exercises there is a collection of paper-pencil tasks, called puzzles.

Keywords: specific learning difficulties, identification, treatment
 

Gyarmathy É. (1998) A tanulási zavarok terápiája. Új Pedagógiai Szemle, XLVIII. évf. 1998/12. 75-87.

Therapy of the specific learning difficulties

The main characteristic of this material is its flexibility. Teachers can identify the deficits and competently form and collect the tasks according to the children's ability. The complexity of tasks provides a wide developmental material. Games can be used as training from the beginning of the nursery years, and the gradually more and more used paper-pencil tasks prepare the child for the school-work, too.

The collection is divided to three main parts, and each part is subdivided to three further parts. There are motor tasks (body scheme, balance spatial orientation), perceptional tasks (visual, auditory and tactile perception) and sequential tasks (sequences in the space, time and verbal ability) for the trainings. The training of the sequential information processing is still very rare in the developmental programs, although its importance is already known. In my research work I found the deviant information processing of LD children important. They use parallel processes even in older age, when the successive processes should work at least equally efficiently. The stressed sequential training can help children to acquire the information process that is more efficient in the school-success.

Keywords: specific learning difficulties, parallel processes, therapy