Twice exceptional

The term twice exceptional, often abbreviated as 2e, entered educators' lexicons in the mid-1990s and refers to gifted students who have some form of learning or developmental disability.[1] These students are considered exceptional both because of their giftedness (e.g., intellectual, creative, perceptual, motor etc.) and because they are disabled (e.g., specific learning disability, neurodevelopmental disability etc.) or neurodivergent. Ronksley-Pavia (2015) presents a conceptual model of the co-occurrence of disability and giftedness.[2]

A twice-exceptional child is one who, along with being considered gifted in comparison to same-age peers, is formally diagnosed with one or more disabilities.[3] Although twice-exceptional can refer to any general disability, it is often used to refer to students with learning disabilities. Research is not limited to these areas, and a more holistic view of is seen as helping to move the field forward.[2][4]

The learning associated disabilities can include dyslexia, visual or auditory processing disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, autism, Tourette syndrome, and ADHD. Twice-exceptionality can also be associated with a diagnosis of anxiety or depression or any other disability interfering with the student's ability to learn effectively in a traditional environment.[3] For example, 19% of dyslexic students were found to be superiorly gifted in verbal reasoning.[5] Often twice-exceptional children have multiple co-morbid disabilities that seem like a paradox to many parents and educators.[2]

There is no clear-cut profile of twice-exceptional children because the nature and disabilities of twice exceptionality are so varied. This variation among twice-exceptional children makes it difficult to determine just how many of them there might be. Best estimates of prevalence range from 300,000[6] to 360,000[7] in the U.S. (on the order of 0.5% of the total number of children under 18[8]). Linda Silverman, Ph.D., the director of the Gifted Development Center has found that fully 1/6 of the gifted children tested at the GDC have a learning difference of some type.[9] In Australia, in 2010 a conservative estimate of the number of twice-exceptional children was around 40,000,[10] or approximately 10% of gifted Australian children, although other estimates have placed this much higher at 30% of gifted Australian children as being twice-exceptional.[11]

  1. ^ Dawn Beckley, University of Connecticut. "Gifted and Learning Disabled: Twice Exceptional Students" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Ronksley-Pavia, Michelle (2015-07-01). "A Model of Twice-Exceptionality". Journal for the Education of the Gifted. 38 (3): 318–340. doi:10.1177/0162353215592499. hdl:10072/167548. S2CID 147854278.
  3. ^ a b National Education Association, 2006. The Twice-Exceptional Dilemma.Washington D.C.:NEA.
  4. ^ Abramo, Joseph (June 2015). "Gifted Students with Disabilities "Twice Exceptionality in the Classroom"". Music Educators Journal. 4: 62–69. doi:10.1177/0027432115571367. S2CID 145430237 – via nafme.org.
  5. ^ Berninger, V. W., & Abbott, R. D. (2013). Differences between children with dyslexia who are and are not gifted in verbal reasoning. Gifted Child Quarterly, 57(4), 223–233.
  6. ^ Baum, S.M.; Owen, S.V. (2004). To be gifted and learning disabled: Strategies for helping bright students with LD, ADHD and more. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.
  7. ^ National Association for Gifted Children & Council of State Directors of Programs for Gifted (2011). State of the states in gifted education: National policy and practical data. Washington, DC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ "In 2013, there were nearly 74 million children younger than 18 in the United States." ChildTrends Databank: Number of Children. ChildTrends.org, last updated July 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  9. ^ Silverman, Linda [www.gifteddevelopment.com/What_is_Gifted/learned.htm "What We Have Learned About Gifted Children"],Gifted Development Center, 2012.
  10. ^ Ronksley-Pavia, Michelle (2014). "An Empirical investigation of twice-exceptional research in Australia: Prevalence estimates for gifted children with disability (PDF Download Available)". ResearchGate. Unpublished. doi:10.13140/2.1.1456.4160. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  11. ^ Munro, DR John (2002-06-01). "Gifted learning disabled students". Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities. 7 (2): 20–30. doi:10.1080/19404150209546698. ISSN 1324-8928. S2CID 144978567.