STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The Institute for the Study of Advanced Development (ISAD) is a nonprofit research corporation—501©3—with an international advisory board, directed toward the study of giftedness, advanced development, and undeveloped potential in women. ISAD operates as two organizations: the Gifted Development Center and Visual-Spatial Resource.

ISAD became incorporated in 1986 and has produced the only journal on adult giftedness since 1989. Advanced Development, the official publication of the Institute, is published annually and serves the worldwide community with theoretical expositions, case studies of moral exemplars, research, therapeutic applications, poetry and essays on advanced human development. Nine volumes have been published to date. The journal offers in-depth exploration of the issues facing gifted adults. Unlike the traditional view of adult giftedness as high levels of productivity and creativity, ISAD’s view of advanced development in adults is more subtle: it involves the deepening of the personality, strengthening of one’s values, broadening of one’s scope of responsibility, consciousness of the meaning of one’s existence, striving toward self-perfection, concern for others and commitment to service.

Research is an important focus of the Institute. ISAD has accumulated case studies on more than 800 children above 160 IQ—the largest databank in the world on highly gifted children. Research has also been conducted on emotional development in adults, giftedness in siblings, comparisons of gifted children’s performance on different instruments, the relationship between ear infections and underachievement, introversion and giftedness, and the visual-spatial learning style.

Among the instruments that have been developed are: The Visual-Spatial Identifier; The Visual-Spatial Identifier: Self-Report, Rating Scale of High IQ Visual-Spatial Learners; Characteristics of Giftedness in Children Scale; Introversion/Extraversion Continuum; Developmental Record Form; Characteristics of Introversion in Adults Scale; Parent Questionnaire; Parents of Gifted Offspring Questionnaire (for children above 160 IQ); and the Student Self-Nomination Form.

Postdoctoral internships with ISAD have been awarded to Dr. Karen Rogers, Coordinator of Gifted Education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; Dr. Frank Falk, Chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Akron; Dr. Nancy Miller, Associate Director of Family Studies at the University of Akron; Dr. Martha Morelock, Director of the Gifted Unit at the University of Melbourne; and Dr. Cecile Alip, Dean of the School of Education at the University of the Philippines. Pre-doctoral interns include Sarah Pong, with the Education Department of Hong Kong; Chor Siang with the Ministry of Education in Singapore; Cheryl Ackerman, doctoral student at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas; Katheryn Kearney, doctoral student at Columbia University Teachers College; and Lacen Horter from the University of Alaska, Barrow, Alaska.

Major research findings of the Institute can be found within the document, entitled, “What We Have Learned About Gifted Children."

ISAD Board Members:

Mary Haynes, B.A.

James Golanty, J.D.

Ex Officio Members:

Copyright 1997 - 2007, Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.
Gifted Development Center
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