Dual ExceptionalityBy Chris Cleary, Christie Drago, and Ben Schultz

“It appears to be a well-kept secret that a child can be both gifted and handicapped.”

- Linda Silverman

Twice Gifted: What and Who?

• Twice-exceptional students are students who are gifted and who are also learning, emotional , behavioral, or physically disabled (NEA, 2006).

Twice Gifted: What and Who?

• Twice-exceptional students are found everywhere. They come from every ethnic and cultural group, racial background, social and economic class.

• Twice Exceptional students are the most under-identified and underserved gifted students in just about every school population (Davis/Rimm 1994)

Twice Gifted: Problems

• Twice gifted students are regularly omitted from special services, especially if they function well in regular ed. classrooms (Schnur/Stefanich)

• The greater the severity of the disability, the greater the social stigma, which can lead to an inability to make the most of services (Zigler/Muenchow)

• “Instead of asking why gifted children should have learning disabilities, we should be asking, “Why shouldn’t they?” Giftedness provides no immunity against genetic vulnerabilities or injuries. We are all susceptible to tiny chromosomal variants and genetic repeats.”

- Webb/Dietrich (2005)

Twice Gifted: Types

• Gifted with Physical Impairments:

– Generally the giftedness and physical impairment are unrelated

Twice Gifted: Types

• Gifted with Sensory Disabilities

- Blindness/Deafnessimpairs development – leads to artificially lowIQ scores

Twice Gifted: Types

• Gifted with Emotional/Behavioral Impairments– Schizophrenia – EBD– Conduct disorder

Twice Gifted: Types

• Gifted with ADD/ADHD– This is one of the largest types– Giftedness is often linked with these disorders,

and in fact, giftedness may have lead to over-indentification

Twice Gifted: Types

• Gifted with Learning Disabilities– Dovetails with the previous type– Again, one of the largest of all unidentified groups

• “We were asked to come in for a parent teacher conference. Our son’s teacher said his book report was awful. He did half the required number of pages. What he handed in was chaotic and disorganized, and he didn’t seem to care about doing it. The school counselor suggested he might be ADD because he just doesn’t seem to focus when he is asked to do in-class assignments. He doesn’t do them, does them badly, or just makes up his own assignment and does that instead. Getting him to do homework is a struggle. Do you think he has ADD? Or is he in the wrong place in a GT program?”

Identification

• Problems– Mentally, when we “type” children we tend to like

them to fit into one easy to understand category. Generally that means “gifted” is ignored in favor of a disability (Davis/Rimm)

– Sometimes the gift occurs in the same area as the disability, obscuring the giftedness (for instance, ADD in a mathematically gifted student) (Clark 1997)

Identification

• Problems– Because of the verbal nature of schools and identification tests, many of these students are unable to prove their giftedness because they struggle with verbal expression.

Ways to Identify

• 1. Use multiple sources of data• 2. Reduce qualifying scores to adjust for

disability• 3. Be vigilant in looking for exceptionalities in

students whose exceptionalities mask each other

• 4. Avoid combining scores from multiple data points; keep sub-groups separate

Characteristics

• Cognitive Strengths/Positive Characteristics–* Curious and questioning–* Interested in the big picture–* Have a specific talent or area of interest–* Extremely creative in technique to

compensate for disability–* Have a superior vocabulary

Characteristics

• Challenges/Negative Characteristics– * Extremely frustrated/bored with school– * Unable to control impulses– * Poor social skills/display anti-social behaviors– * Difficulty following directions

Characteristics

• Challenges/Behavior Negatives– * Disruptive behaviors including being the class

clown– * Anger, crying, self-criticism– * Apathy and/or withdrawal

• “Ultimately, providing a selection of settings (e.g., general classroom, gifted class, LD resource room, special class for gifted students with learning disabilities) and a multitude of service options (e.g., accelerated course work, enrichment, individualized instruction, homogeneous grouping) seems to be a better way to meet the needs of academically talented students with learning disabilities (and perhaps all students).”

- Brody/Mills (1997)

Teaching Strategies

– * Allow students to explore interests

– * Adjust teaching style to accommodate more kinesthetic and visual learning styles

– * Teach the concepts prior to teaching content

– * Teach organization skills•

Teaching Strategies– * Provide opportunities for students to shine

– * Provide choice in demonstrating understanding

– * Address not ignore social and emotional concerns

– * Provide interdisciplinary curriculum

– * Curriculum compacting, differentiation, and acceleration

• https://sites.google.com/site/4390dualexceptionalities/subtopics/accommodations-and-programs-for-dual-exeptionalities

“A nurturing environment - one that shows concern for developing student potential - values and respects individual differences. Students are rewarded for what they do well. Options are offered for both acquiring information and communicating what is learned. The philosophy fosters and supports interdependence; students work in cooperative groups to achieve goals.”

Role of the District– * Provide specialized services that address both areas of

exceptionality

– * Implement effective professional learning opportunities that focus on identification and teaching twice-exceptional students

– * Mandate an IEP team, not one teacher or other faculty member.

– * Encourage family involvement and support•

Role of the District

• Provide opportunities for twice-exceptional students to strengthen their gift that may not be academically related such as through art, dance, theater, internships, clubs, and other enrichment opportunities.

Role of the District

* Require support staff at school is involved in decision making process: counselors, psychologist,, speech and language specialists, and graduation coaches.

Bibliography

• Brody and Mills, L. E. and C.J (1997). Gifted children with learning disabilities: A review of the issues. Journal of Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10168.aspx