Gifted

Education

The field of gifted education has discovered ways to create and maintain optimum
learning conditions for twice-exceptional students. It is impor-tant for parents and
teachers of twice exceptional students to teach compensation strategies. Specific
teaching and learning methods enable such students to successfully progress on
their learning journeys.

Twice-exceptional students cannot improve by simply trying harder. Their
learning challenges often emanate from a series of neurological twists and turns as
messages try to make their way to the brain from the source of the stimulus, be it
seeing or hearing or some other perceptual sensation. The good news is that these
students have above-average intelligence and can be taught specific compensation
strategies that can allow them to make significant progress in their productivity in
school.

While planning and teaching these strategies, it is helpful to remember the words of
Kenneth Dunn (1987): If they are not learning the way we teach them, lets teach
them the way they learn! When we keep trying to teach kids in ways that have
repeatedly failed, discouragement soon replaces optimism. Furthermore, we want to
send messages full of hope and confidence to the stu-dents. Rather than implying
there is something wrong with the kids themselves because of their repeated
failures, we can change methods of instruction until we find one that is a good fit,
and learning success can be achieved.

The rule to follow when teaching students who are twice exceptional is simple.
When teaching in their areas of strength, offer them the same compacting and
differentiation opportunities available to other gifted students. When teaching in
their areas of challenge, teach them whatever strategies they need to increase their
learning success. Never take time away from their strength areas to get more time to
work on their deficiencies. Never remediate their weaknesses until you teach to
their strengths!


Guidelines for Teachers Who Work with Learning-Disabled Students

1. Take time at the beginning of every school year to help all your students
appreciate and support individual differences. The more you demonstrate that
diversity is a good thing, the more your stu-dents will learn to accept individual
differences in positive ways. Teachers and schools must enforce policies that do not
allow teasing, name calling, or other practices that demonstrate rejection of kids
because they are different. The more a teacher pro-vides differentiation
opportunities in her class, the more she sends the message that being different is
natural, and that all differences are valued as part of being human.

2. Make sure students see the big picture before they try to learn its pieces.
Strategies that are helpful include watching a video before and after studying a
novel or other unit of work, hearing a story read aloud before reading it individually,
and working from graphic organizers that fit on one page so the whole picture of
the entire unit content is visible at once.

3. Teach students how to set realistic, short-term goals and to take credit for
reaching those goals, even if they represent only a portion of the entire task.

4. Make everything visual. Use graphic organizers, charts, graphs, timelines,
vocabulary maps, other types of learning maps, and any other tool that condenses
lots of words into a few pictures or graphics. If you are lecturing, supplement your
words with visual organizers as you talk. Stop frequently to check for understanding
with group response methods, rather than simply accepting one or two verbal
responses from volunteers.

5. Use musical chants, raps, rhymes, or rhythms for students who respond to those
methods.

6. Build lots of movement into the learning tasks. Many students with learning
challenges are very kinesthetic in their learning and truly appreciate movement
opportunities. Ask students to stand or jump to indicate their responses to
questions. Use team games where kids get to walk to differ-ent areas of the room to
indicate a response. Allow students to hold onto squeezable objects to enable them
to keep moving their hands such as Kush balls. Guard against the impulse to label
highly kinesthetic learners as ADHD.

7. Understand that these students often prefer hands-on and experiential learning
situations. They love to do projects, to construct models and visual representations
of what they have learned. Unfortunately, such students are often prevented from
this type of learning activity as teachers fear that students with learning difficulties
will lose control of their behavior. The irony is that acceptable behavior is much
more likely to occur when students are interested in what they are learning.

8. Allow struggling readers to listen to the books on tape before the class reads a
designated story or novel. Listening to one chapter at a time allows these kids to be
much more active participants in class discussions and activities in reading and even
in content areas. An agency called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic has
recordings of almost every book used in American classrooms. They have a plan
where individual families can borrow the taped books for a nominal fee. All that is
required is a letter from a medical or educational professional.

9. Provide specific instruction in organization. Provide color-coded notebooks by
subject areas, and two sets of texts, one of which can be kept at home. Teach kids to
keep charts for supplies and homework. Post reminder notes on the door through
which the child passes on his way to school.


10. Use technology that will improve the students productivity. It is not cheating
to use calculators, tape recorders, word processors, and spell-check programs for a
student with learning weaknesses.

11. Allow students to take tests in separate, super-vised environments so they can
either read the test aloud themselves or have someone else read it to them.

Guidelines for Teachers Who Work with Gifted Potential

1. Allow students to experience compacting and differentiation in their areas of
strength. Offer pretests to document previous mastery of a subject area. Allow
students to move through new content at a faster pace and to use some of the
remaining time to work on projects in their areas of interest.

2. Dont worry about the fairness issue. If you are worried that other students will
resent the options available for your gifted students or students with learning
challenges, simply offer the same options for the whole class. The same methods you
have devised for exceptional learners may benefit many other students as well.


Guidelines for Parents

1. Understand that many children who are twice exceptional have uneven
standardized test scores. This is a common profile, and it paints an accurate picture
of the very definition of this conditionstrong highs and significant lows. Often, the
learning disability depresses the gifted ability so the child scores in the average
range. Teachers may perceive that parents are looking for status by insisting their
child has exceptional abilities. Keeping a journal of exceptionally capable behaviors
you observe outside of school may be helpful.

2. Ask that your child be able to participate in activities in his areas of strength. Be
prepared to support the schools efforts to assist your child in her areas of
weakness. Above all, resist efforts by school personnel to limit your childs profile to
either gifted or learning challenged. Schools may focus on the disability and stop
looking for any other exceptionality once the disability is documented.

3. Seek out the best available services for diagnosis based on neurological
assessments, rather than simple behavioral checklists. Proper diagnosis, combined
with effective learning plans, go a long way toward learning success for your child.

4. Find all the information you can about learning styles, and share that information
with your youngster. Help him learn how to use his strength areas to compensate
for tasks he finds particularly difficult.

5. Advocate for your child to use any technology that increases his learning success.
It helps some students to make tape recordings of teachers lectures.

6. If all else fails, consider homeschooling. This field of twice exceptional education
is fairly new, and many educators are unaware of its content and implications. In
some cases it is impossible to get schools to recognize the gifted aspect of this
condition. On the other hand, be as realistic as possible when you make this
decision. Homeschooling is not always easy.

7. Understand the special challenges that come with the quest for friends. Recall
from your own experiences how much easier it is to relate to people with similar
needs and interests. Encourage your youngster to join clubs or groups that share her
passionate interests. Do not be concerned if your child chooses friends of different
ages. A 10-year-old with the mind of a 12-year-old has very little in common with
his age peers in many areas. Ask yourself how many of your own friends are within
one year of your present agethen relax!


The Challenge

Teaching or parenting children who are twice exceptional is very challenging. The
most serious challenge is making certain that the giftedness is recognized. Any
efforts parents and teachers can direct toward understanding and teaching the
whole child, with all his complicated learning needs, will go a long way toward
creating optimum learning conditions for these very interesting and challenging
youngsters. Happily, there are many more resources available now than ever before.

Susan WinebrennerSusan Winebrenner writes on topics related to teaching gifted
students and students with learning difficulties. She is the author of several books, a
speaker at conferences, and a columnist for the journal Understanding Our Gifted.
She works as a consultant with individual schools and districts, helping them apply
current educational research to classroom practice.

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