Implications For Gifted Students With A Disability
If we are to increase the number of “twice exceptional” students identified and served in our schools, we must implement specific changes in the way we approach identification, instruction, and classroom dynamics for our students.
Key Changes in Identification
- Include students with disabilities in the initial screening phase
- Be willing to accept unconventional indicators of intellectual talent
- Look beyond test scores
- When applying cutoffs, bear in mind the depression of scores that may occur due to the disability
- DO NOT aggregate subtest scores into a composite score
- Compare with others who have similar disabilities
- Weight more heavily characteristics that enable the student to effectively compensate for the disability
- Weight more heavily areas of performance unaffected by the disability
- Allow the student to participate in gifted programs on a trial basis
Key Changes in Instruction
- Be aware of the powerful role of language; reduce communication limitations and develop alternative modes for thinking and communicating
- Emphasize high-level abstract thinking, creativity, and a problem-solving approach
- Have great expectations; these students often become successful as adults in fields requiring advanced education
- Provide for individual pacing in areas of giftedness and disability
- Provide challenging activities at an advanced level
- Promote active inquiry, experimentation, and discussion
- Promote self-direction
- Offer options that enable students to use strengths and preferred ways of learning
- Use intellectual strengths to develop coping strategies
- Assist in strengthening the student's self-concept
Key Changes in Classroom Dynamics
- Discuss disabilities/capabilities and their implications with the class
- Expect participation in all activities; strive for normal peer interactions
- Facilitate acceptance; model and demand respect for all
- Candidly answer peers' questions
- Treat a student with a disability the same way a student without a disability is treated
- Model celebration of individual differences
Gifted students with disabilities must be provided with appropriate challenges. The personal and societal costs of not developing their potential cannot be overstated.
Watch the video of Mattie Stepanek, a very special student, by clicking on the graphic on the left.