Press Release

(Hong Kong - 4 July 2015) The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) held the Biennial Parent Conference 2015 entitled “Positive Psychology: To Help the Gifted Child Live an Abundant Life” on 4 July. Through speakers’ presentations and interactions with participants, the conference served as a platform for parents to understand how to help their gifted children realise their potential and clarify their life aspirations, so that these children can live abundant lives and stay resilient to face challenges positively. Professor Ng Tai Kai, Executive Director of the HKAGE, expressed his gratitude to the speakers for sparing their time to participate in the conference. He emphasised that parents play a particularly vital role in helping gifted children develop their potential and flourish in life. The HKAGE places importance on the affective development of gifted children and their parents, and this will become a focus of its programmes in the coming year in the hope of enabling gifted students to access more suitable learning opportunities for holistic personal development.

The keynote speaker Professor Samuel Ho, a professor in Psychology at the Department of Applied Social Sciences of City University of Hong Kong, is a renowned scholar of positive psychology and registered clinical psychologist in Hong Kong and Australia. In his keynote address, Professor Ho discussed about some of the identified individual characteristics being associated with a meaningful and flourishing life, shedding light on how parents can make their lives and those of their children happier and more meaningful. Parents of gifted children may face high levels of psychological stress when they nurture and care for their children, and it is very important to maintain the personal well-being.

In addition, four professional staff members of the HKAGE shared their insights with the parents in concurrent sessions. They explored positive psychology techniques through interactions to address the needs of gifted children at different developmental stages. The four professional staff members were Mr Patrick Lam, Associate Director of the HKAGE, Mr Victor Ching, Educational Psychologist of the HKAGE, Ms Tiffany Sin, Education Advisor of the HKAGE, and Ms Cherry Li, Professional Development Officer of the HKAGE. A forum took place at the end of the conference, where the professional staff and participating parents had a fruitful exchange. Many parents said they had benefited much from it. The conference ended successfully in applause.

After the conference, the HKAGE provided shuttle service for the participants to visit the 19th Hong Kong International Education Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Two sharing sessions were conducted for gifted students and parents respectively to continue to exchange thoughts and ideas on giftedness.

Photo 1 Professor Samuel Ho delivers his keynote address - Positive Psychology: To Help the Gifted Child Live an Abundant Life.

Photo 2 Professor Ng Tai Kai, Executive Director of the HKAGE, presents a souvenir to Professor Samuel Ho.	Photo 3 A forum takes place at the end of the conference where the professional staff and participating parents have a fruitful exchange.