Exploring the World of the Twice Exceptional Child

On Tuesday, March 12th, 2002 an attentive audience gathered to hear Dr. Teresa Boatman speak of the world of the twice exceptional child. Her talk was full of practical suggestions and advice, stemming from a wealth of knowledge from working with gifted children of all types and a passion to do what is best for these special children.

To begin, the children with dual exceptionalities are those who are gifted as well as exhibiting any number of disorders or disabilities. Below are some definitions and trends Dr. Boatman explained and a summary of her recommendations.

Gifted - Individuals with heightened intellectual abilities typically scoring 130 or above on a Wexler comparable IQ test.

Gifted / LD (reading, writing or math) – Having a greater than 2 standard deviation difference between specific gifted intellectual potential and achievement scores in accepted LD areas (frequently a highly visual spatial learner who struggles with writing or reading).

Gifted / ADHD – Intellectually gifted students who are beyond the continuum of psychomotor intensity and have difficulty with distractibility and impulsivity in a clinical range (possibly one of the highest misdiagnosis areas).

Gifted / ADD – Intellectually gifted students who have a clinical level of difficulty with distractibility, organization and concentration.

Gifted / Sensory Integration – Intellectually gifted with difficulty with sensory regulation (atypical reactions to sensations or difficulty modulating or regulating responses) or sensory processing (misinterpretation of sensory information coming from body or environment).

Gifted / Emotional Behavior Disordered – Intellectually gifted with intense behavior control issues where child is unable to maintain appropriate boundaries and responses to environmental input (can include anxiety and/or depression).

Twice exceptional children are frequently not identified because:

1. They are recognized as gifted, but the disability has not been noticed.
2. They are recognized as disabled, but giftedness has not been noticed.
3. They are seen as “typical” students because their giftedness and disabilities mask one another.

In the classroom or at home dually exceptional children exhibit some of the following characteristics or trends.

Compensation – Utilizing atypical methods to problem solve such as memorization (although generally lacking organizational skills and arriving home exhausted).

Asynchrony – Can do wonderful work and rise to the occasion (at times when a topic is of interest) and very poor work on other occasions.

Frustration – Do not understand the asynchrony, inability to put a puzzle together, inability to sit still. Frequently see a decrease in self-esteem, especially if majority of time is focused on disability.

Junior high may be the first time compensation does not accommodate their weaknesses. Stress, fatigue and higher level demands do not allow for compensation; these children think, “I’m not gifted anymore.”

Rushing through work or taking an extremely long time to complete simple projects.

Advice to parents

• Early identification is optimal particularly for motor, speech and language delays.
• Giftedness should be tested when fresh: in the morning vs. after school.
• Disability should be tested when fatigued to guard against compensation.
• Maintain a portfolio of your child’s work demonstrating giftedness.
• Do not aggregate test scores for identification of giftedness as this may be deceiving and appear to be a non-gifted child.
• School cannot meet all your child’s needs; incorporate home, university and other options for successful outcomes.
• Watch for struggles in self-esteem if child feels identified for negatives rather than positives.

Intervention suggestions

• Allow for creative approaches to identification of giftedness.
• Be persistent as it can take years for dually exceptional children to be properly assessed.
• Expect to need an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) as many dually exceptional children may be the only child in the school with that profile.
• See that strengths are focused as much as possible during your child’s academic day.
• Identify teachers who emphasize higher level abstract thinking, creativity and problem solving strategies.
• Encourage mentoring.
• Maintain consistent communication with teachers.