Davidson Institute for Talent Development
Educators Guild Newsletter
Vol. 1, Issue 4
2005
This article discusses how gifted children with individual needs may be a teacher's easiest students, but what happens when the teacher has a gifted student who also has a learning disability. "While it can be difficult identifying a gifted child in your classroom, it can be even more challenging to identify a gifted child who also has a learning disability. The key is to not hone in on the stereotypes of gifted or learning disabled, but to instead look at each child individually."
With a classroom of 30, it can be easy to assume the gifted children will be your easiest students. The stereotypical gifted student is high achieving, motivated, predictable, social, and able to work well individually. As we know, this is not always the case. While it can be difficult identifying a gifted child in your classroom, it can be even more challenging to identify a gifted child who also has a learning disability. The key is to not hone in on the stereotypes of gifted or learning disabled, but to instead look at each child individually. Getting transfixed on "normal" can leave many children overlooked or misdiagnosed.
Lynn, a student in the gifted and talented program, is recently having difficulty staying on task and paying attention during class. She appears to daydream during class discussions, lose her place when following along, and her reading comprehension seems to be declining. She may be struggling with attention difficulties and could be a candidate for further ADHD evaluation. Or, it might be worth assessing the level of material presented in the classroom, as Lynn may simply be under challenged.
Chuck, one of the brightest in the class, produces short and sloppy written assignments, with less than desirable content. Does this mean he is a lazy student who lacks attention to detail? Instead Chuck may be struggling with fine motor skills deficiencies due to asynchronous development, dysgraphia or other written language deficits, or simply that he finds the task overwhelming as his thoughts race in his head faster than he can write them.
Teaching a classroom full of students with individual needs can be overwhelming. As we can see from Lynn and Chuck, there may be different issues at hand than what are presenting on the surface. While in some cases it can be easy to pinpoint a student's specific weakness, other cases may not be as obvious. Through creative problem solving and deductive reasoning, educators can not only get to the root of the problem, but also find more meaningful solutions.
Permission Statement
|