Kevin Besnoy - Successful Strategies for Twice-Exceptional Students

THE PRACTICAL STRATEGIES SERIES
IN GIFTED EDUCATION

series editors
FRANCES A. KARNES & KRISTEN R. STEPHENS

Successful Strategies for
Twice-Exceptional Students

Kevin D. Besnoy, Ph.D.

P RUFROCK P RESS , I NC

Copyright 2006 by Prufrock Press Inc.

All rights reserved.

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Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59363-759-0

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Contents

General Characteristics of Gifted Students
With Learning Disabilities

Practical Strategies for Gifted Students
With a Mathematics Disability

Practical Strategies for Gifted Students
With Writing Disabilities

Series Preface

The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education offers teachers, counselors, administrators, parents, and other interested parties up-to-date instructional techniques and information on a variety of issues pertinent to the field of gifted education. Each guide addresses a focused topic and is written by scholars with authority on the issue. Several guides have been published. Among the titles are:

Acceleration Strategies for Teaching Gifted Learners

Curriculum Compacting: An Easy Start to Differentiating for High-Potential Students

Enrichment Opportunities for Gifted Learners

Independent Study for Gifted Learners

Motivating Gifted Students

Questioning Strategies for Teaching the Gifted

Social & Emotional Teaching Strategies

Using Media & Technology With Gifted Learners

For a current listing of available guides within the series, please contact Prufrock Press at (800) 998-2208 or visit http:// www.prufrock.com.

Introduction

As a young child, Frank W. Woolworth struggled in school. He had a difficult time keeping up with his classmates, and his teachers labeled him as slow. Although he was not very successful in school, young Frank experienced a lot of success in the business world. In order to help his family, he began working in a local grocery store where he helped market products. His idea was to place 5-cent items near the checkout counter. Although this may not seem like an innovative idea today, it was revolutionary at the time. Frank Woolworth did not allow his slow label to prevent him from becoming a successful businessman. In 1879, he opened his first store in Utica, NY. By 1911, the F. W. Woolworth Company had more than 1,000 stores across the United States and in other countries. The success of F. W. Woolworth demonstrates that gifted students with learning disabilities can be successful. Yet, if twice-exceptional students are to maximize their potential, they need appropriate instructional strategies that enable them to utilize their strengths to compensate for their disabilities.

Overview

Although it is difficult to comprehend, it is possible for a child to be both gifted and learning disabled. Everyone with a vested interest in the well-being of gifted and learning disabled students must be committed to providing them with an appropriate education. To meet this goal, we must first understand how the gift and disability manifest themselves.

In order to provide proper instructional strategies for gifted students with learning disabilities, it is necessary to understand their learning and social-emotional characteristics. In order for twice-exceptional children to maximize their potential, teachers, parents, and students must work together. Intervention strategies must boost self-efficacy, promote areas of strength, and provide coping strategies to compensate for disabilities.

Hannah and Shore (1995) assert that gifted students with learning disabilities are stereotyped. Their giftedness implies that they have metacognitive prowess, yet their learning disability suggests they lack strong metacognitive skills. These opposing stereotypes make it difficult to adequately define the characteristics of twice-exceptional students. Susan Baum (1990) groups twice-exceptional students into one of three categories: those who have been identified as gifted, but whose learning disability is not recognized; those who have an identified learning disability, but whose giftedness is unknown; and those whose giftedness and learning disability go unnoticed, thus they appear to be average students.

Identified Gifted

Gifted students with slight learning disabilities tend to be easily identified. Baum (1990) acknowledges that this group scores high on achievement and IQ tests, allowing educators to readily identify them as gifted. However, this group has a propensity to be underachievers and, as they progress through school, this underachievement intensifies. Baum suggests that such underachievement can be attributed to poor self-concept or lack of motivation. Moreover, Vaidya (1993) indicates that students with learning disabilities find learning a difficult and painful process. As these students matriculate through school, they become more frustrated with the learning process, thus the disparity between potential and achievement widens. These students tend to have poor handwriting and spelling skills (Fetzer, 2000); have high verbal abilities (Little, 2001); and are forgetful, sloppy, and disorganized (Baum). Often, teachers and parents, knowing the potential these students have, become frustrated with the students progress. According to Baum, concerned adults often believe these students only need to try harder in order to meet their potential. However, without appropriate intervention programs, increased effort is still not enough to generate achievement.

Brody and Mills (1997) note that these students learning disabilities may go unrecognized for the majority of their education. This oversight is a real concern for these students because they do not have the necessary skills to capitalize on their talent. According to Baum (1990), although increased effort may be required for achievement, the real issue is how these students compensate for their disability. By identifying the disability, educators can teach twice-exceptional students appropriate social and educational coping skills.

Identified Learning Disabled

The second group of twice-exceptional students is the identified learning-disabled students whose giftedness remains unrecognized. Fetzer (2000) reports that these students are frequently placed in classes for students with learning disabilities. Generally speaking, they are usually well-behaved. Interest-ingly, their disabilities tend to depress their intellectual performance, and they are rarely referred for gifted services (Brody & Mills, 1997). The services these students receive merely address their disability. Baum (1990) states that parents and teachers become focused on the problem because they do not recognize the students gifts. While these children often have high-level interests at home, little consideration is paid to their strengths and interests in school.