"Twice Exceptional Students": Let's Focus on the Strengths

In the last several weeks.  I have had conversations with parents who are concerned for their child/children with special needs.  At the same time they have children who are in need of challenging and engaging classroom curriculum.  A child who reads literature two grades beyond his/her peers has no one to share and converse their thoughts and impressions.  This can be lonely. My husband teaches children with special needs and many of them are “twice exceptional.” They struggle with a disability; yet they can write, read, or calculate at a level far beyond their peers.  Sometimes children are so advanced that they are bored and cause challenges in the classroom.  Moving children in to special education is not always the answer.  Maybe, we need to focus on a child’s strengths instead of deficits and move students into “Gifted Programs” or engaging differentiated curriculum. The definition of gifted according to the US Department of Education is:

"Children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment." - US Department of Education, 1993.

I just love the  “potential” word in the quote above.  Some parents are just realizing their child’s potential.  It can be easy to overlook the underachievers.

Characteristics According to NSGT:

1. Often a perfectionist and idealistic.
2. Heightened sensitivity.
3. Sequential or spacial learners.
4. Far ahead in content and curriculum compared to peers.
5. Problems solvers
6. Often thinking on an abstract level.  May need help with concrete skills.
7. May define success by an “A” grade.  Anything less feels like a failure.

According to Parent Involvement Matters.org “Educational research suggests that opportunities to engage in cognitively complex tasks are essential to optimize potential. This has been affirmed by studies in psychology and neurophysiology, as well. MRI brain studies show that the developing brain is plastic during the first seven or so years of life and begins to network and “hardwire” based on the degree of exploration and level of complexity a child engages in over time. That is one reason it is crucial for young children to engage in exploratory, hands-on, meaningful discovery learning rather than static, directed learning."