Twice+Exceptional

**Definition of twice exceptional:**
====What is the term twice exceptional? Twice exceptional is also known as 2e. This is when children have two different forms of learning difficulties. The children are exceptional both because of their intellectual gifts and because of their special needs, making them twice exceptional.====

**Identification:**
Twice-exceptional students are difficult to identify because they possess the characteristics of gifted students and the characteristics of students with disabilities. Gifted characteristics may mask disabilities or disabilities may mask gifted potential. The strengths, the disabilities, or both may not be identified. To be considered twice-exceptional, the student must be identified for gifted education and special education services.

**Twice Exceptional Issues in Education:**

 * Strengths: Challenges: **
 * superior vocabulary || easily frustrated ||
 * highly creative || stubborn ||
 * resourceful || manipulative ||
 * curious || opinionated ||
 * imaginative || argumentative ||
 * questioning || written expression ||
 * problem-solving ability || highly sensitive to criticism ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">sophisticated sense of humor || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">inconsistent academic performance ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">wide range of interests || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">lack of organization and study skills ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">advanced ideas and opinions || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">difficulty with social interactions ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">special talent or consuming interest || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">emotional ||

===="Twice-exceptional learners are students who have the ability to think, reason, and problem-solve at very high levels but also have special education needs. These children are best served by teachers who recognize and build on their exceptional strengths while at the same time are flexible in areas where the students require accommodations and support" (Horn, 2011).==== ====How can a student be in a learning environment and learn, while not learning at the same time? There are some students that appear to have no physical differences, but are bored doing activities and unmotivated to do class work. Many times the child has not been “labeled” gifted until they are sent in for testing for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. Often times with this test, the student may be found to also have ADHD while being gifted, being twice exceptional.==== ====Some students apply little or no effort to school tasks while they commit considerable time and effort to demanding, creative activities outside of school. In most cases, these behaviors are typical of students who are simultaneously gifted and learning disabled.====

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Characteristics of Twice-Exceptional Children **
====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The following list should be viewed as characteristics which are typical of many children who are gifted and who also have a disability, rather than characteristics which all such children possess. These twice-exceptional children do not form a simple, homogeneous group; they are a highly diverse group of learners. ====


 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have a wide range of interests that are not related to school topics or learning. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have a specific talent or consuming interest area for which they have an exceptional memory and knowledge. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Are interested in the “big picture” rather than small details. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Are extremely curious and questioning. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Possess high levels of problem-solving and reasoning skills. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have penetrating insights. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Are capable of setting up situations to their own advantage often as a coping method. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Are extremely creative in their approach to tasks and as a technique to compensate for their disability. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have an unusual imagination. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Are humorous often in “bizarre” ways. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have advanced ideas and opinions which they are uninhibited in expressing. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have a superior vocabulary. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Have very high energy levels. ====

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Indicators of Cognitive/Affective Problems **
====This group is easily identified as gifted because of high achievement or high IQ scores. As they grow older, discrepancies widen between expected and actual performance. These students may impress teachers with their verbal abilities, while their spelling or handwriting contradicts the image. At times, they may be forgetful, sloppy and disorganized. In middle school or junior high, where there are more long-term written assignments and a heavier emphasis on comprehensive, independent reading, some bright students find it increasingly difficult to achieve. Concerned adults are convinced that if these students would only try harder, they could succeed.==== ====While increased effort may be required for these students, the real issue is that they simply do not know how! Because they may be on grade level and are considered gifted, they are likely to be overlooked for screening procedures necessary to identify a subtle learning disability. Identification of a subtle disability would help students understand why they are experiencing academic difficulties. More important, professionals could offer learning strategies and compensation techniques to help them deal with their duality of learning behaviors.====
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have discrepant verbal and performance abilities.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have deficient or extremely uneven academic skills which cause them to lack academic initiative, appear academically unmotivated, avoid school tasks, and frequently fail to complete assignments.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are extremely frustrated by school.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have auditory and/or visual processing problems which may cause them to respond slowly, to work slowly, and to appear to think slowly.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have problems with long-term and/or short-term memory.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have motorical difficulties exhibited by clumsiness, poor handwriting, or problems completing paper-and-pencil tasks.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lack organizational skills and study skills; often appearing to be extremely “messy.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are unable to think in a linear fashion; have difficulty following directions.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are easily frustrated; give up quickly on tasks; are afraid to risk being wrong or making mistakes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have difficulty explaining or expressing ideas, “getting-to-the-point,” and/or expressing feelings.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Blame others for their problems while believing that their successes are only due to “luck.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are distractible; unable to maintain attention for long periods of time.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are unable to control impulses.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Have poor social skills; demonstrate antisocial behaviors.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Are highly sensitive to criticism.
 * Identified gifted students who have subtle learning disabilities:**

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Content Extension ~ **
====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Content extension is the process of extending the curriculum beyond what is typical or expected in a class or grade level. Content extension includes: ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Exposure beyond the regular curriculum — to new ideas, skills, and concepts not encountered before. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Extension of the regular curriculum — going more broadly and deeply into the ideas already introduced in that curriculum. Extend learning beyond level through advanced content, materials, and complexity. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Concept development — using a concept introduced within the regular curriculum and exploring its meaning and implications across the curricular areas. ====

====**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Depth **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">encourages students to venture further, deeper, with greater elaboration, through quality of subject matter, rules and ethics, language, and patterns. It involves learning from: ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Concrete to abstract. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Familiar to unfamiliar. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Known to unknown. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Literal to synthesized. ====

====**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Complexity **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">helps students make connections and identify relationships and associations between, within, and across subjects and disciplines. It focuses on: ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Varying perspectives. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Issues, problems, and themes. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Conceptual learning. ====

====**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Novelty **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">encourages students to create a personal understanding or connection to the subject area, thereby making content more memorable. It provides opportunities to: ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Interpret meaning and give personal insights. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Use non-traditional study methods. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Approach content through inquiry, experimentation, invention, and exploration. ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Synthesize information using irony, paradox, and metaphors. ====

====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It is important to realize that these components interact. For example, depth of learning at some point demands both novelty and complexity — a student cannot study extinction without recognizing the relationship between areas of biology, natural phenomena and man’s influence. Personal interests may also come into play. ====

====Although each of these subgroups has unique problems, they all require an environment that will nurture their gifts,attend to the learning disability and provide the emotional support to deal with their inconsistent abilities. Four general guidelines can assist professionals in developing programs that will meet the needs of these students. The following guidelines were from an article by Susan Baum, found on the Hoagies Gifted Education website. Her suggestions are:====
 * 1) ====**Focus attention on the development of the gift**. Remediation of basic skills historically has been the single focus of efforts to serve students once they have been classified as learning disabled. Few opportunities exist for bright students with learning disabilities to demonstrate gifted behaviors. Research has shown that a focus on weaknesses at the expense of developing gifts can result in poor self esteem, a lack of motivation, depression and stress (Baum, 1984; Whitmore & Maker, 1985). In addition to offering remediation, focused attention on the development of strengths, interests, and superior intellectual capacities is necessary. The students need a stimulating educational environment which will enable them to fully develop their talents and abilities. Enrichment activities should be designed to circumvent problematic weaknesses and to highlight abstract thinking and creative production.Over the last 6 years, the state of Connecticut has funded a variety of special programs for gifted students who have learning disabilities. All the programs have emphasized the development of gifts and talents of these students. The results of the projects showed dramatic improvement in student self-esteem, motivation, and productive learning behaviors. Improved achievement in basic skills for many students has been an unexpected bonus (Baum, 1988). In fact, according to Whitmore and Maker (1985), more gains are seen when intervention focuses on the gift rather than the disability.====
 * 2) ====**Provide a nurturing environment that values individual differences**. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs(1962), individuals must feel like they belong and are valued in order to reach their potential or self-actualize. How valued can a student feel if the curriculum must be continually modified, or assignments watered down, to enable the student to achieve success? Currently, only certain abilities are rewarded by schools, primarily those that involve strong verbal proficiency. Indeed, according to Howard Gardner (1983), schools spend much of their time teaching students the skills they would need to become college professors. Success in the real world depends on skills or knowledge in other areas besides reading and writing.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. Multiple intelligences are acknowledged; A well-produced video production about life in the Amazon is as valued as the well-written essay on the same topic. In such an environment no child will feel like a second-class citizen, and the gifted students with learning disabilities can excel.====
 * 3) ====**Encourage compensation strategies**. Learning disabilities tend to be somewhat permanent. A poor speller will always need to check for errors in spelling before submitting a final draft. Students who have difficulty memorizing mathematics may need to use a calculator to assure accuracy. Thus,simply remediating weaknesses may not be appropriate or sufficient for the gifted learning disabled student. Remediation will make the learner somewhat more proficient, but probably not excellent, in areas of weakness. For instance, students who have difficulty with handwriting will ultimately fare much better if allowed to use a computer to record their ideas on paper than they will after years of remediation in handwriting. The following list outlines suggestions for providing compensation techniques to assist the student in coping with problematic weaknesses typical of the learning disabled student:====
 * ====Find sources of information that are appropriate for students who may have difficulty reading. Some examples are visitations, interviews, photographs, pictorial histories, films, lectures, or experimentation. Remember, these children do not want the curriculum to be less challenging or demanding. Rather, they need alternative ways to receive the information.====
 * ====Provide advanced organizers to help students receive and communicate information. Students who have difficulty organizing and managing time also benefit from receiving outlines of class lectures, study guides, and a syllabus of topics to be covered. Teach students who have difficulty transferring ideas to a sequential format on paper to use brainstorming and webbing to generate outlines and organize written work. Provide management plans in which tasks are listed sequentially with target dates for completion. Finally, provide a structure or visual format to guide the finished product. A sketch of an essay or science project board will enable these students to produce a well-organized product.====
 * ====Use technology to promote productivity. Technology has provided efficient means to organize and access information, increase accuracy in mathematics and spelling, and enhance the visual quality of the finished product. In short, it allows students with learning disabilities to hand in work of which they can feel proud. Preventing these students from using word processing programs to complete all written assignments is like prohibiting blind children from using texts printed in braille!====
 * ====Offer a variety of options for communication of ideas. Writing is not the only way to communicate; all learning can be expressed and applied in a variety of modes. Slides, models, speeches, mime, murals, and film productions are examples. Remember, however, to offer these options to all children. Alternate modes should be the rule rather than the exception.====
 * ====Help students who have problems in short-term memory develop strategies for remembering. The use of mnemonics, especially those created by students themselves, is one effective strategy to enhance memory. Visualization techniques have also proved to be effective. Resources are listed at the end of this digest.====
 * 1) ====**Encourage awareness of individual strengths and weaknesses**. It is imperative that students who are gifted and learning disabled understand their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses so that they can make intelligent choices about their future. If a goal that is important to such a students will require extensive reading, and, if reading is a weak area, the student will have to acknowledge the role of effort and the need for assistance to achieve success. "Rap" sessions, in which these students can discuss their frustrations and learn how to cope with their strange mix of abilities and disabilities, are helpful. Mentoring experiences with adults who are gifted and learning disabled will lend validity to the belief that such individuals can succeed (Baum, 1990).====

**For a child struggling with reading you can:**

 * ====Supplement his reading assignments with multimedia materials if available. For example, have him watch the DVD of the novel, in addition to reading it.====
 * ====Tape-record reading material for her to listen to while she reads the printed text of assigned books. Or, if you can find it, buy the book-on-tape.====
 * ====Include high interest selections from magazines and newspapers in line with your child’s reading assignments.====
 * ====Have her paraphrase material orally.====
 * ====When possible, modify the reading material. For instance, select shorter books for book reports or books with larger print.====
 * ====Avoid reading situations which might make him uncomfortable, like reading aloud in a group.====

====When students are twice exceptional, what does it mean for teachers? When giving instruction, make sure the curriculum is engaging and is being understood according to the student’s level of development. While apply meaningful work to them, they will normally keep behavior problems under control and be much more productive in the classroom.====

Baum, S. (1990, January 01). //Gifted but learning disabled: a puzzling paradox//. Retrieved from http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e479.html
Clark, B. (2008). //Growing up gifted//. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

Horn, C. (2011). //Twice exceptional learners//. Unpublished manuscript, Advanced Academic Programs, Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/gt/directory.html