Twice-Exceptional is Gifted with Learning Disabilities
Twice-exceptional children are those who are both gifted and have a learning, emotional, behavioral, or social issue. Experts suggest
2-5% of all gifted children fall into this category. These children are in the “exceptional range” statistically for their cognitive, academic, or creative abilities and are at the lower end in their deficit area, which results in performance inconsistency.
Imagine spending day after day in traffic school for a traffic violation you did not commit. This is the reality for the twice-exceptional child. Twice-exceptional children have unique challenges not easily understood.
The uneven development causes frustration, stress and behavioral issues that puzzle parents, and teachers since twice-exceptional children may appear to be uninterested, lazy, distracted, or disruptive in the classroom. 2E children typically work as hard if not harder than others, with less to show for their efforts.
Examples of 2E include (but do not contain all): Dyslexia (including auditory or visual processing disorder), Dyscalculia (learning disability in mathematics), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
2-5% of all gifted children fall into this category. These children are in the “exceptional range” statistically for their cognitive, academic, or creative abilities and are at the lower end in their deficit area, which results in performance inconsistency.
Imagine spending day after day in traffic school for a traffic violation you did not commit. This is the reality for the twice-exceptional child. Twice-exceptional children have unique challenges not easily understood.
The uneven development causes frustration, stress and behavioral issues that puzzle parents, and teachers since twice-exceptional children may appear to be uninterested, lazy, distracted, or disruptive in the classroom. 2E children typically work as hard if not harder than others, with less to show for their efforts.
Examples of 2E include (but do not contain all): Dyslexia (including auditory or visual processing disorder), Dyscalculia (learning disability in mathematics), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Did you know?
- Agatha Christie was recognized as the “slow one” in the family.
- Beethoven’s music teacher once said, “As a composer, he is hopeless.”
- Jay Leno received poor grades throughout elementary school. His favorite career moment was calling up his fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Simon, 40 years after getting a C- on a paper about astronaut John Glenn, and asking Simon to watch him interview Glenn. He got his paper upgraded from a C- to an “A”.
- Thomas Edison’s teacher told him he was too stupid to learn.
- Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.
- Whoopi Goldberg dropped out of high school, became addicted to drugs, married her drug counselor and had a child by the time she was 19.
- Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.
- Einstein was four years old before he could speak, and seven before he could read.