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Twice Exceptional GiftedBy Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q: My daughter, 6.5 years has just completed speech therapy for a condition known as Central Auditory Processing Disorder. She was discharged due to her results on the TAPs-3 being above average in all areas except one where she was within average. On subtests such as Relational Vocabulary, Picture Vocabulary, and Grammatic Understanding she scored from 8.4 years up to > 9.9 years.
On the one subtest, Auditory Comprehension she only scored 5.7 years. Her speech therapist deemed her as "above average in almost all areas of the TAPs-3 test."
My question is this - should I get her tested for more both giftedness and a possible learning disability or am I fooling myself? I believe she is very intelligent as she reads at a 2nd to 3rd grade level, does double and triple digit addition problems, does some double digit subtraction problems, and does simple multiplication. Perhaps she is just precocious but I want to make sure she will be challenged and maybe a gifted program can help. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
A: It is really good that you are aware that your child may have advanced abilities despite having some challenges. These children are at greatest risk of being identified for their weaknesses rather than their strengths. This is termed as twice exceptional - which means the child has very advanced cognitive abilities and yet one or more learning disability which usually masks their strengths and in turn depress their IQ scores so that they appear less gifted than they really are. Giftedness can be combined with visual and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, other physical disabilities, and psychological dysfunctions. Being gifted provides no immunity against physical diseases and accidents that impair functioning.
You are certainly not fooling yourself - in fact, you deserve a pat on the back for being able to see the strengths in your child and trying to do something about it. Misidentified gifted children often slip through the cracks of the mainstream education system which in turn causing them to fail to qualify for gifted programs. To reach out to these unique children, they need to be taught to their strengths, assistive technology, and accommodations in the classroom, such as untimed tests and shorter written assignments, based on their needs. Lat but not least, they flourish with the help and support from and supportive teachers and parents. So, yes, if she has above average skills, a gifted program that caters for her needs may be better for her to fully develop her potentials.
For more information on this area, do visit the following site:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm
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