Resource Guide for
Gifted Children with
Learning Differences
Compiled by:
Julie Billett, MSN, NP
Published by:
Kent County Association for Gifted and Talented
(KCAGT)
With the support of a grant from
Michigan Alliance for Gifted Education
(MAGE)
© 2003
Julie Billet, the Kent County Association for Gifted and Talented, and the Michigan Alliance for Gifted Education disclaim any liability, loss, injury, or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, to the use and application of any of the contents of this booklet. Any information contained in this booklet is intended to be beneficial to parents and educators, but it should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of a physician.
Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
What do these children look like?................................................................................................... 4
Interpreting Test Scores............................................................................................................................. 5
Definitions................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Identifying Gifted Children with Learning Disabilities.................................................. 7
Distinguishing Between ADHD and Giftedness?........................................................................... 8
Coping Strategies............................................................................................................................................... 9
Assessment Resources................................................................................................................................... 10
Central Auditory Processing Disorder......................................................................................... 11
Visual Processing Disorders.................................................................................................................... 11
Symptoms of Vision Problems................................................................................................................. 13
Internet Resources........................................................................................................................................ 15
Book Resources.................................................................................................................................................. 16
References............................................................................................................................................................. 18
Gifted children often have hidden learning disabilities (dual exceptionalities). One-sixth of the gifted children who visit the Gifted Development Center for testing have some type of learning disability—usually undetected before the assessment—such as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), difficulties with visual-perception, writing disabilities, spatial disorientation, dyslexia, and attention deficits. Giftedness masks disabilities and disabilities depress IQ scores. Higher abstract reasoning enables children to compensate to some extent for these weaknesses, making them harder to detect. However, compensation requires more energy, affects motivation, and breaks down under stress or when the child is fatigued (Silverman, 2002).
The purpose of this guidebook is to help educators to be aware of the gifted/ learning disabled population. This is a unique population of children who very often go unrecognized within the school systems. Through the use of this resource manual I hope that you may be able to identify children who are gifted and learning disabled and help them to become successful in the school environment.
Children who are both gifted and learning disabled exhibit remarkable talents or strengths in some areas and disabling weaknesses in others.
They can be grouped into three categories:
1. They may be identified as gifted but not achieving up to their potential.
2. They may be identified as learning disabled without their gifts being recognized.
3. They may appear to be just average. They are not identified as gifted or learning disabled. Their strengths and weaknesses cancel each other out and both are hidden by average achievement (Baum, 1990)
Gifted children who are not achieving to their full potential need to be looked at more closely. A learning disability is not the only reason for underachievement. However, a learning disability must be considered when trying to determine why a potentially high achieving student is performing poorly.
As these children get 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 to achieve without being taught.
Since they may be performing satisfactorily at their current grade level and were previously identified as gifted, they are likely to be overlooked for the screening procedures necessary to identify subtle learning disabilities. The identification of a subtle disability would help students understand why they are experiencing academic difficulties (Baum, 1990).
Children with identified learning disabilities are first recognized because of poor performance at school. This group of students is the most at-risk because of the implicit message that accompanies the LD. They are categorized as “defective” and “fixing the defect” takes priority over all other academic concerns. Parents and educators alike become totally focused on the problem. Little attention, if any, is paid to the student’s strengths and interests (Baum, 1990).
Gifted students who have unidentified learning disabilities struggle to achieve at grade level. Their superior intellectual ability helps to compensate for weaknesses. In essence, their gift masks the disability and the disability masks the gift. These students are often difficult to find because they do not flag their need for attention by exceptional behavior. The disability is frequently discovered in college or adulthood when the student happens to read about dyslexia or hears peers describe their learning difficulties (Baum, 1990).
When analyzing test scores to determine either giftedness or learning difficulties, it is very important to look at the subtest scores and not just the overall score. On the WISC-III, significant differences between subtest scores can be indicative of a learning problem. Subtest scores often indicate strengths and weaknesses clearly.
High scores have been proven to reflect the student’s true abilities, but low scores indicate that further testing is necessary to determine whether there is a learning disability. High intelligence can also complicate the diagnosis. Many gifted children have learned to compensate so well for areas of weakness, that they may appear average when they are really struggling (Silverman).
Thorough testing involves assessments of visual processing, auditory processing, attention and impulsivity. Processing disorders can impede a child’s achievement of their potential abilities. It is important to note that for gifted students, scores of average (including processing tests) may be sufficient to indicate a deficit.
www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/gt_ld/jld_gtld.html
Giftedness (High Level Learning)
Giftedness refers to a set of behaviors exhibited in individuals who are performing or who show potential for performing, at unusually high levels for their age, experience, or environment. These individuals have abilities, talents, and potential, which require differentiated educational programs/services. Gifted behaviors are present in individuals across all cultural groups, in all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. (U.S. Department of Education, 1993)
Specific Learning Disability
"Specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. This term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. This term does not apply to children who have learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Criteria for determining the existence of a specific learning disability
Reg. Sec. 300.541
(a) A team may determine that a child has a specific learning disability if:
(1) The child’s achievement is not commensurate with his or her age and ability levels in one or more of the areas listed in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, when provided with learning experiences appropriate for the child's age and ability levels; AND
(2) The team finds that a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in one or more of the following areas:
(i) Oral expression
(ii) Listening comprehension
(iii) Written expression
(iv) Basic reading skill
(v) Reading comprehension
(vi) Mathematical calculation
(vii) Mathematical reasoning
Gifted/Learning Disabled (GT/LD)
A gifted/learning disabled student is highly intelligent, and is expected to achieve well in school, but struggles due to some form of processing difficulty.
Examples of processing difficulties: visual discrimination, visual figure-ground discrimination, visual memory, visual motor processing, visual closure, understanding spatial relationships, auditory discrimination, auditory figure-ground discrimination and auditory memory.
Sensory integration disorder is another example of a processing disorder. Sensory integration, is the ability to process information through the senses (touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing), to put it together with prior information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain, and to make a meaningful response. The sensory system is responsible for such things as coordination, attention, arousal levels, autonomic functioning, emotions, memory, and higher-level cognitive functions.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD), are recognized as disorders that can be classified as “Other Health Impaired” under the 1999 reauthorization of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). ADD/ADHD can coexist in the gifted child. ADD/ADHD in combination with unrecognized giftedness can be very detrimental to achievement.
(Silverman)
|
Signs of Giftedness |
Signs of Learning Disabilities |
|
· excellent long-term memory
· extensive vocabulary excels in reading comprehension
· excels in mathematical reasoning
· advanced verbal skills in discussions
· facile with computers
· grasps abstract concepts
· performs better with more challenging work
· thrives on complexity
· highly creative, imaginative
· reasons well
· is a keen observer
· may have acute hearing
· has very interesting ideas
· extremely curious; asks many questions
· has high degree of energy
· perceptive
· insightful (seems "wise")
· excellent sense of humor
· may excel at art, science, geometry, mechanics, technology, or music |
· poor short-term memory
· speaking vocabulary more sophisticated than written vocabulary
· struggles with decoding words
· does poorly at computation
· refuses to do written work
· handwriting is illegible
· has great difficulty with spelling and phonics
· struggles with easy, sequential material
· difficulty with rote memorization
· often inattentive in class
· emotions can overpower reasoning
· poor auditory memory
· poor listening skills
· weak in language mechanics, such as grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc.
· may be unable to learn unless interested
· performs poorly on timed tests
· hopelessly disorganized
· finds clever ways to avoid weak areas
· may fail at foreign languages and subjects emphasizing audition, sequencing, and memory |
Seeing the difference between behaviors that are sometimes associated with giftedness but also characteristic of ADHD is not easy, as the following parallel lists show.
BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED WITH ADHD (Billett, 2003)
1. Difficulty with regulation of attention. Can under or over focus.
2. Difficulty completing tasks that require sustained mental processes
3. Impulsivity
4. Poor self regulation in a variety of settings, such as social or academic
5. Restless, fidgety, lots of energy
6. Difficulty following the rules
BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED WITH GIFTEDNESS (Webb, 1993)
1. Poor attention, boredom, daydreaming in specific situations
2. Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant
3. Judgement lags behind development of intellect
4. Intensity may lead to power struggles with authorities
5. High activity level; may need less sleep
6. Questions rules, customs and traditions
Consider the Situation and the Setting
It is important to examine the situations in which a child’s behaviors are problematic. Gifted children do not typically exhibit problems in all situations. For example, they may be seen as ADHD-like by one classroom teacher but not by another; or they may be seen as ADHD at school, but not by the scout leader or music teacher. Close examination of the troublesome situation general reveals other factors which are prompting the problem. By contrast, children with ADHD typically exhibit the problem behaviors in virtually all settings-including at home and at school-though the extent of their problem behaviors may fluctuate significantly from setting to setting (Barkley, 1990), depending largely on the structure of that situation. (Webb & Latimer, 1993)
(Silverman)
|
Symptoms |
Solutions |
|
· chronic ear infections in first three years, often related to allergies |
· immediate medical attention; talk louder; enunciate words; get eye contact before talking |
|
· does not hear name when watching TV |
· touch shoulder to get attention |
|
· hyperactivity interspersed with periods of intense concentration |
· relaxation exercises; check diet with allergist; test for ADHD |
|
· occasionally gets “glazed” look |
· talk louder and more animatedly; use gestures |
|
· easily distracted in noisy situations |
· provide quiet workspace; earphones |
|
· cannot remember three-step directions |
· write directions on paper |
|
· has difficulty learning phonics |
· teach sight words and context clues |
|
· has difficulty spelling |
· visualize word, spell backwards and forwards with eyes closed, write word |
|
· has difficulty learning math facts |
· have child complete a multiplication chart and look for patterns |
|
· asks to have directions repeated or copies children nearby |
· write directions on board; get eye contact before giving directions |
|
· cannot perform on timed tests in school |
· allow student to take timed tests at home, trying to beat own record |
|
· illegible handwriting; letter reversals |
· teach student to use a computer or typewriter |
|
· does not complete written assignments |
· allow child to use word processor for assignments |
|
· has difficulty taking notes in class |
· use tape recorder; provide carbon paper to a “buddy” to take notes |
|
· has difficulty completing easy work, but does well with harder concepts |
· skip easy, sequential material; teach advanced material holistically |
|
· does poorly at rote memorization and drill |
· let child learn complex, abstract concepts instead |
|
· does not respond well to remedial efforts |
· teach compensation techniques instead |
|
· performs poorly in some classes and well in others (may be poor at biology, foreign language, composition, but good at geometry, physics, creativity, math reasoning skills, dictating stories) |
· concentrate on child’s strengths; use visual presentations; allow child to pursue interests; use computer-assisted instruction; emotionally engage child |
Michigan Dyslexic Institute
Robert Smith, Ph.D.
Neuropsychologist
532 East Shiawasee
Lansing, MI 48912
(517) 485-4000
Lawrence Dugan, Ph.D.
Neuropsychologist
3934 Cascade Road, SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
(616) 954-0557
Experienced with the gifted/learning disabled population
Workshops/Seminars for teachers and schools
Member National Speakers Association
Member International Speakers Network
Gifted Development Center
Linda Silverman, Ph.D.
1452 Marion Street
Denver, Colorado 80218
(303) 837-8378
Fax: (303) 831-7465
Phone consultation available
E-mail counseling available
www.gifteddevelopment.com
Julie Billett, MSN, NP
Integrative Educational Partners, LLC
6739 Courtland Dr
Suite 101
Rockford, MI 49341
(616) 874-7490
iep@ieptherapy.com
www.ieptherapy.com
Central auditory processing disorder may be described as difficulty processing auditory information, although hearing sensitivity and intellectual ability are unimpaired.
Some common symptoms associated with CAPD include:
- not listening carefully to instructions
- being easily distracted by background noise
- difficulty with phonics or speech sounds, spelling and/or reading
- poor learning through the auditory or hearing channel
- behavioral problems
- below average academic performance
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
