GIFTED AND LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN

Gifted and Learning Disabled Children

Gifted and Learning Disabled Children

Introduction

Since Terman's time, a widespread belief about gifted children has been that they regularly score high on intelligence tests and perform well in school (Brody & Mills, 1997). Yet during the last decade, increasing attention has been being given to the confusing question of high ability students who also have learning disabilities. Uneasiness in accepting this seeming contradiction in terms stems primarily from faulty and incomplete understandings. This is not surprising, because the "experts" in each of these disciplines have difficulty reaching agreement. Some still believe that giftedness is equated with outstanding achievement across all subject areas. Thus, a student who is an expert on bugs at age 8 may automatically be excluded from consideration for a program for gifted students because he cannot read, though he can name and classify a hundred species of insects. Many educators view below-grade-level achievement as a prerequisite to a diagnosis of a learning disability. Thus, an extremely bright student who is struggling to stay on grade level, may slip through the cracks of available services because he or she is not failing (Baum, 2010).

Gifted and Learning Disabled Children

How is it possible for a child to be both gifted and learning disabled? When giftedness is thought of as learning-abled, it seems incomprehensible that a person could be simultaneously learning-abled and learning-disabled. However, when giftedness is seen as developmental advancement or as advanced abstract reasoning ability or as asynchrony (the discrepancy between mental and chronological age), it becomes conceivable that a bright student may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, calculating, or organizing. Giftedness can be combined with blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, other physical handicaps, and psychological dysfunctions. It provides no immunity against physical diseases and accidents that impair functioning (Baum, 2010).

It is common knowledge that disabilities require early intervention, and early intervention is only possible if there is early detection. While physical impairments may be obvious, learning disabilities are often difficult to detect in the gifted. The greater one's abstract reasoning abilities, the easier it is to design strategies that camouflage the problem. For example, gifted children with serious hearing impairments have been known to read lips so well that the hearing loss was not discovered for many years. Many children with visual weaknesses use verbal reasoning to talk their way through visual tasks. Such compensation strategies cover up the difficulties temporarily, ...