Gifted Students with Learning Difficulties: A Review

The contents of this post have been moved to giftedireland.ie

Giftedness and Learning Disabilities

Giftedness and Learning Disabilities: 

Unearthing the Missed Diagnosis

Presented by Paul Beljan, PsyD, ABPdN 

15th March 2012

7.30pm Eastern/11.30pm GMT

Cost: $40 

In this SENGinar, teachers, parents, and counselors will learn how to correctly diagnosis learning disabilities in gifted and talented children.  

Characteristics of gifted and talented children can result in incorrect diagnoses, such as overlooking learning disabilities.Learning disabilities can take the form of academics (reading and math) or innate abilities in general learning that may relate to social learning.

In this SENGinar, Dr. Paul Beljan will review some of the basic tenants of giftedness that include intellect and asynchronous development. He will then turn to the nuts and bolts of learning disabilities: what they look like, how to assess them, and what to do about them in the contexts of the gifted population. The "discrepancy model" of learning disability will be dispelled in favor of understanding the brain basis of learning disabilities. Dr. Beljan will present several anecdotes and case examples to illustrate the process of learning disabilities.

Sign Up Now!    NOTE: Register now and you will receive a link to the recording of this SENGinar the week following the live event.

About Paul Beljan, PsyD, ABPdN Dr. Paul Beljan is a past president of the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology. He holds child and adult diplomate qualifications with the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology and the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology. Dr. Beljan co-wrote Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults, and has authored several chapters and articles in various publications. Dr. Beljan currently is working on his post doctoral master's degree in psychopharmachology. Dr. Beljan's professional focus is on Alcohol/Drug Related Neurodevelopmental Deficit (A/DRND), Gifted Intelligence, Learning Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, Trauma, and non-medication-based Attention and Executive Functioning Deficit interventions.

About SENG Webinars

For more information, contact Patricia Petrillo. This webinar is provided by SENG, www.SENGifted.org. SENG is committed to sharing complex issues relating to the social and emotional needs of giftedness. SENGinars reflect the opinions of their speakers and do not necessarily represent SENG's philosophy. SENG invites your comments and discussion about this webinar following the session.

To Label Or Not To Label?

In the US, it is estimated that up to 20% of gifted children may also have a learning disability of some sort, i.e. are twice exceptional. We don’t have figures for Ireland, but I assume they would be roughly similar. Is this accurate? Do these children really warrant a diagnosis or label or are they just plain gifted and displaying behaviour typical of giftedness?

Physical disabilities and some learning disabilities may be easy enough to identify. Others are not so clear-cut, particularly in gifted individuals. What is the difference between ADHD and overexcitability? Does the daydreaming, unfocused child or the one who keeps blurting out the answers in class have a brain which is working at a hundred miles an hour or do they have ADHD? Is a child who does not mix well with their classmates displaying asynchrony or do they have Asperger Syndrome?  Is a child who can be elated one minute and distraught the next, suffering from bipolar disorder or just emotional intensity? Do you see the problem?

In Ireland, very few psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists have expertise in giftedness. So, when faced with these issues, they may be too quick to label. On the other hand, for the very same reason, they may miss the diagnosis of a learning disability if giftedness is masking the problem. It is important to be able to see the big picture because, as Dr Linda Silverman says when describing how the gifted cope with learning disabilities, compensation is a two-edged sword.

Most behaviours or traits have a spectrum and we each display them at different intensities. Much like a graphic equaliser gives a piece of music its overall character, it is the combination of all these behaviours at different levels which gives us each our unique personality. Some of us lie near the centre of the range for all the traits; others fall well to one end or the other of some. Does that indicate a diagnosable condition or are we just a little eccentric?

Let me use ADHD to illustrate my point. I am very disorganised, I procrastinate, I flit from idea to idea without seeing things through, and my house usually looks like a tornado just passed through. Do I have ADHD? Well, I am certainly well up along that particular spectrum! Whether I warrant the label or not, I am not sure. 

Excuse the sexist stereotyping but, consider a married man with ADHD and a personal assistant. His assistant keeps him organised at work and, more than likely, his wife keeps him organised at home. So, it's quite possible that he does fine and may never even know he has ADHD. In contrast, a married woman with ADHD who chooses the traditional role of stay-at-home-mother may be expected to manage the household and organise everyone; herself, her children and her husband. Throw in a child or two with traits of ADHD (it tends to run in families) and a couple of pets and the chances are, she may struggle somewhat. She may, like me, be frazzled! 

So you see, the impact of the “problem” very much depends on life circumstances at any given time. If we choose the “right” job and the “right” partner, we may sail through just fine. Alternatively, we may end up in trouble at various times. My view is that we must be aware of our traits and how they affect us. Firstly, it makes us better able to make good choices and not to be too hard on ourselves when we mess up. Secondly, we can learn strategies that may help us to cope. What works for people with the full-blown disability, may help those with milder traits. It is our job as parents, to help our children to understand themselves in this way and to take responsibility for their behaviour. 

Having said that, there are times when we may need to accept the label and seek help. This is particularly important for our children. It is all very well to say we don’t want them to be stigmatised, but if they are struggling to cope at school, getting a diagnosis or label can be the only way to get support for them. This may make all the difference, not only to their level of achievement, but also to their self-confidence and general well being during their formative years.

References: 

Gifted Children with Learning Disabilities : Lost Treasures by Linda Kreger Silverman 

Overexcitability and the Gifted by Sharon Lind

Asynchronous Development by Jean Goerss

Emotional Intensity in Gifted Children by Lesley Kay Sword

The Two-Edged Sword of Compensation: How the Gifted Cope With Learning Disabilities by Linda Kreger Silverman

Understanding How Gifted and Twice Exceptional Children Can Benefit From OT  by Debra Johnson

Gifted Children and Social Skills

How many parents of gifted children are told that their children have social skills deficits? I suggest, quite a few. But, do they really? Let’s put things in context here. The average child, by definition, has an IQ of one hundred.  The IQ of ninety-five percent of children falls between seventy and one hundred and thirty. A child with an IQ of 70 or below is considered to have an intellectual disability. By the simplest and most common definition, a gifted child has an IQ of 130+. 

Consider, for one moment, a school specially set up to teach children whose IQ falls below seventy. In a school for the intellectually disabled, everything would go at a pace to suit the slow learner and content would be kept relatively simple. Now imagine that an average child, with an IQ of one hundred, ends up in this school. They are eight years old, so they must join the class for eight year olds.

Would you expect this child to be a model student who would sit still and engage enthusiastically with the classwork and their classmates. Would you expect them to make lots of friends with whom they were keen to socialize outside school? If they showed signs of restlessness or inattention, would you immediately wonder about a diagnosis of ADHD? If they preferred to spend time alone reading books, building models or looking up things on the internet after school, would you be frantically trying to arrange playdates for them in an attempt to make them learn social skills and to integrate and be the same as everyone else in the class? Would you wonder about possible Autistic Spectrum Disorder?

On the contrary, I suggest that it would not be long before parents and teachers realized that the problem was simply a mismatch and that a more appropriate learning environment was the answer. Indeed, if a child with intellectual disability found themselves struggling in a mainstream classroom, the same conclusion would be reached and more appropriate arrangements sought.

Why are gifted children treated so differently? Why are they placed into mainstream classes designed for children of average ability and expected to just suck it up, behave and be happy? Why, when they struggle, are they told there is something wrong with them? Have you ever been told that your gifted child has a touch of several disorders but just not quite enough to actually attach the label? How come it is so rarely considered that the problem may be one of a mismatch and that a more appropriate learning environment is the answer?

Not alone is this potentially very damaging to the child’s self esteem and motivation to learn, it also deprives them of the opportunity to learn social skills. Other children mix every day with like-minded peers who have the same intellectual ability and the same interests. Through this interaction, they are constantly honing their social skills. Many gifted children never get this chance. They hover on the fringes, always aware that they don’t quite fit in.

Yes, everyone must learn how to get along in the real world. No, not all gifted children struggle socially. But at no other stage of our lives are we all grouped only according to age. At all other stages, interest and ability are taken into account and there is a degree of choice. During childhood and adolescence, given the opportunity, we all learn skills such as patience, tolerance, judgement and how to take different perspectives. So, judging an eight year old child based on their ability to integrate with other eight year olds in a classroom is hardly a fair assessment.

How many parents of gifted children with “social skills deficits” find that, when exposed to a group of like-minded peers for the first time, their child with the problems transforms into a perfectly happy, normal, interactive child? We owe it to our children to fight for opportunities like these. They deserve to have the same feeling of belonging and fitting in that so many other children experience on a daily basis and the same opportunities to develop their social skills in the company of peers. If exceptional ability was at least recognized as a special educational need and treated as seriously as the others, provision could be put in place to support these children appropriately instead of trying to attach disorder labels to them when they don’t fit conveniently into the box we want them in. Why do we insist on crushing our children in order to put them into this box instead of finding one that fits them?

Gifted Children with Learning Difficulties

Twice exceptional or 2E is a term used to describe students who are both exceptionally able and have a learning difficulty of some description. A lovely term used by Pricilla Vail to describe these children in her book Smart Kids with School Problems: Things to Know and Ways to Help is "conundrum kids".

I am really looking forward to what I am sure will be a lively and inspiring discussion of how best to identify and support these children at #gtchat on twitter this Friday 20th August at midnight...yes, folks in Ireland: MIDNIGHT! 

In advance of Friday, I would like to share one of my favourite videos:



For a wonderful explanation of some of the difficulties faced by these students, I highly recommend this paper by Linda Silverman: The Two-Edged Sword of Compensation: How the Gifted Cope With Learning Dificulties

If you feel inspired after that, please join us on Friday. Full details of how to find the chat can be found here: #gtchat