Young Families INSIGHTS
July 2003
Linda Swann, NAMI NC Young Families Program Coordinator, Editor
Linda Buzard, Layout Manager

It sounds paradoxical, but a child can be gifted and have a learning disability at the same time. Some use the designation, "twice exceptional." These children demonstrate remarkable talent and strengths in some areas and substantial weaknesses in others. They may impress their teachers with their verbal abilities but have real problems with handwriting and spelling. They may be unorganized, sloppy, forgetful. One thing is for certain; they all need emotional support to help manage these inconsistencies in their performance at school. They need a school environment that fosters the development of their gifts. They need assistance managing their learning disabilities. Susan Baum (ERIC EC Digest 1990) offers these four guidelines to assist educators in helping these students reach their full potential.

1. Focus attention on the development of the gift. These students need opportunities to demonstrate their gifted behaviors and talents. For the most part, schools have historically focused on remediation, not enrichment. While remediation is necessary, research has demonstrated that focusing on weakness at the expense of talent and skill can result in poor self-esteem, depression, and a lack of motivation (Baum, 1983; Whitmore & Maker, 1985). Enrichment activities should be designed to work around those activities that cause these students to struggle. The emphasis should be on being creative and thinking abstractly. These students need an educational environment that encourages the development of their strengths, interests, and often, superior intellectual abilities. Programs funded in Connecticut in the late 1980’s demonstrated that with a focus on strengths and talents, these students improved their basic skills and experienced more gains when the focus was on their gifts rather than their disabilities. Self-esteem and motivation also increased.
2. Provide a nurturing environment with value placed on individual differences. A nurturing environment, "one that shows concern for developing student potential," also places value on individual differences. Students can be offered a variety of ways to show what they have learned. (One mother recently remarked that her son could excel in school if her were allowed to put what he knows into the form of a rap.) Students working in groups allows for differences if each can focus on what he does best. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1962) taught us that people need to feel they belong and are valued in order to reach their potential. If the curriculum always has to be adjusted, assignments "watered-down," in order for a student to succeed, he/she begins to feel less valued and less capable than others. Let’s reward students for what they do well.
3. Encourage compensation strategies. Because learning disabilities remain somewhat permanent, students need to learn ways around these areas that cause them trouble. Someone with poor handwriting can do much better when allowed to use a computer, rather than struggle along with handwriting practice or remediation. Calculators help those with problems with mathematical operations. Therefore, use technology to promote productivity. It helps them become more successful and organized. Other ideas include offering alternative ways to obtain and communicate ideas. Students who have trouble reading may use interviews, photographs, films, or lectures to take in new information. They do not want the subject matter to be less challenging, they just need new ways to receive information. Advanced organizers can help students who have difficulty organizing and managing their time. This could include giving the students outlines of lectures, study guides, and a syllabus of topics. They basically need a structure or visual format to help them organize their work and guide them toward the finished product. And of course, students with short-term memory problems need to learn methods that help them remember. The use of mnemonics is one strategy to enhance memory. Visualization is also helpful.
4. Encourage awareness of individual strengths and weaknesses. Students have to learn to identify and understand their own strengths and weaknesses in order to make intelligent choices and compensate when necessary. They have to know when to ask for extra help. Mentoring with an adult who is gifted and learning disabled can be valuable. Getting together as a group to discuss their frustrations and how they learn to cope can be helpful.

In conclusion, students who are gifted and creative, but also have learning disabilities, have to learn how to manage their own unique "mix of abilities and disabilities." They must become their own best advocates. They will hopefully choose careers that utilize their own unique talents and strengths. Along the way, they will meet others like themselves who share unique ways of addressing the learning process.

(Adapted from ERIC EC Digest #479 (http://ericec.org) by Susan Baum, 1990)

• Identify your stressors. Once you can name the source of your stress and your reaction to it, you can step back and find ways to respond differently.
• Locate support. We all need to know that we are not alone. There are other parents with children with behavioral and emotional needs. We often end up realizing that our problems are not so monumental, that others deal with more stress than we.
• Share with others. Don’t hold your feelings in! Once parents are able to be open about their child’s special needs and about their own anxiety and fears, stigma and blame seem to disappear. (These are no-fault brain disorders, a physical disorder that just happens to be based in the brain.)
• Take care of yourself. Stop putting everyone else first and focus on your own needs. Try meditation, yoga, going to bed earlier, and eating better - all of those things your mother taught you years ago.
• Acknowledge your positive traits! It’s easy to get into that negative way of thinking but don’t give in. Keep it simple, recognizing even your smallest accomplishment. Make being optimistic a habit.
• Have faith and hope. Rather than think that your child will always struggle and never be happy, concentrate on imagining him as filled with happiness in the future. When we worry about aspects of our family life over which we have no control, it does us no good. We cannot change the future by worrying and stressing over it. "This too shall pass."
• Write/Keep a journal. This is very therapeutic and a great way to stay in touch with our feelings. List all your concerns, opinions, and reflections.

We all manage stress in different ways. It is important to identify your individual tools to use in lowering the effect of stress in your life. Remember that stress is inevitable in our lives. It is how we deal with it that makes us who we are.

(Adapted from "The Family Voice: On Dealing with Stress: What I’ve Learned from Parenting a Child with Special Needs," by Brooke Schewe, Families Together, Fall 2002)

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Mental illnesses (biological brain disorders) may interfere with a student’s ability to function in different ways. Many of the illnesses affect a student’s ability to do certain things such as thinking or communicating with others. Please remember that since there are a lot of different types of mental illnesses, this is not a complete list, nor do these limitations apply to everyone who has a mental illness. The following is a list of some of the activities that people with psychiatric disabilities may have trouble doing. These are geared for adolescents but also apply to some younger children.

• Screening out environmental stimuli - an inability to block out sounds, sights, or odors that interfere with focusing on tasks. For example, a student may not be able to pay attention while sitting near a loud fan or to focus on studying while sitting in a high traffic area.
  Possible solutions: Move student away from fan area, turn off fan during lecture, identify quiet study area for student.
• Sustaining concentration - restlessness, shortened attention span, easily distracted, remembering verbal directions. For example, a student may have trouble focusing on one task for extended periods, difficulty reading and retaining course material, or trouble remembering instructions during an exam or a classroom exercise.
  Possible solutions: Break large projects into smaller tasks, allow brief but more frequent breaks to stretch, walk around, get fresh air, refer student to a tutor to help with study skills and information retention, assign tasks one at a time, write out instructions on board.
• Maintaining stamina - having energy to spend a whole day in class, combating drowsiness due to medications. For example, a student my not be able to carry a full-time course load or take a lengthy exam at one sitting.
  Possible solutions: Allow the student to arrive at school later. Consider part-time enrollment; schedule an exam or test so student can take it over several days.
• Handling time pressures and multiple tasks - managing assignments & meeting deadlines, prioritizing tasks. For example, a student may not know how to decide which assignments should be done first or be able to complete assigned tasks by the due date.
  Possible solutions: Break larger assignments and projects down into manageable tasks; distribute a course syllabus of the class topics, assignments, and due dates for the entire semester to help students to plan and prioritize workload.
• Interacting with others - getting along, fitting in with fellow students, reading social cues. For example, a student may have difficulty talking to other students, getting notes or discussing assignments, participating in class, meeting students outside of class.
  Possible solutions: Establish a mentor or "buddy system" relationship to introduce the student to others or to show the student " ropes". Teach and practice appropriate social behavior.
• Responding to negative feedback - understanding and interpreting criticism or poor grades, difficulty knowing what to do to improve, or how to initiate changes because of low self esteem. For example, a student may not seem to understand the feedback given and become upset when criticism is given on an assignment.
  Possible solutions: Use a feedback loop (ask student’s perspective of performance, describe both strengths and weaknesses, suggest specific ways to improve); give student the chance to read written feedback privately, and then discuss; make alternative assignments or "extra credit" options available to all students
• Responding to change - coping with unexpected changes in coursework, such as changes in the assignments or exam due dates, or changes in instructors. For example, a student may need to learn new routines or feel unduly stressed when requirements or teachers change or when new expectations are introduced.
  Possible solutions: Prepare students when possible for changes that will be happening, explain any new requirements, make a special effort to introduce any new teachers and orient the new teacher to student’s needs.

(Source: http://www.bu.edu/cpr/reasaccom/educa-func.html

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