Gifted LD Learners

In order to keep the focus on academics, we suggest either of the following as the strength and need for gifted students:
1. General advanced cognitive abilities, or
2. Advanced cognitive ability in [subject]. p12

“If a child is exceptional, that child needs exceptions to the
ordinary program.” Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D.

Acceleration: It means matching the level and complexity of the curriculum with the readiness and motivation of the student.

While the profile of gifted students is extremely variable, compared with their age peers, gifted students often learn faster, about more subjects, in a more symbolic way, and with greater insight, and they remember what they learn. p9

Simply put, schools can place gifted students at the appropriate grade level, provide them with more complex work, and/or offer them broader curriculum. p12

Giving students new material to learn just beyond current knowledge is putting the student in the “zone of proximal development.” This concept is a core idea of the recent Ministry of Education document on literacy and numeracy Education for All. (2005, p. 14)

His/her incremental speed of learning, facility with abstract concepts, and/or superior memory will create ongoing demands. These differences require changes in amount rather than kind, for example, more time on higher level thinking skills, research skills taught earlier, material taught at a faster rate, ideas that are more complex. (Maker, 1986, p.120) p15

The idea of modifying learning expectations for gifted students is to make the grade level objectives more “substantial” by:
1 Changing the content,
2 Making the subject matter or the outcome more conceptually abstract,
3 Increasing the pace of instruction (according to Rogers (2007b), up
to twice or three times as fast in science and mathematics) or providing for lengthier, more extensive study, or
4 Changing the product that will show achievement. p17

Disobey Me, a poem by by Sally Gardner

For “twice exceptional” gifted children (for example, gifted children who also have learning disabilities), there may be issues around which placement for which exceptionality (gifted or LD) will promote learning best, while supporting self-esteem. p10

By agreement with the Ministry of Education, the gifted student’s
“strengths” and “needs” can be the same unless the student has coexisting conditions (for example, intellectual giftedness with a learning disability or intellectual giftedness and hearing loss). p11

It may be that students’ strengths keep them from receiving appropriate remedial programming for their weaknesses or, more commonly, weaknesses are focussed on to the exclusion of programming for superior abilities.

Cognitive Challenges of Gifted Students with LDs
-Deficient or extremely uneven academic skills
-Discrepant verbal and non-verbal performance abilities
-Auditory, perceptual, or visual perception problems
-Problems with long- and/or short-term memory
-Perceptual-motor difficulties evidenced by clumsiness, poor handwriting, or problems completing fine-motor tasks
-Slow responses; students may appear to work slowly and think slowly
-Lack of organizational and study skills; often messy
-Difficulty following directions; nonlinear thinking
-Easily frustrated: students give up quickly on tasks; will not risk being wrong or making mistakes
-Lack of academic initiative; appear academically unmotivated; avoid school tasks; frequently fail to complete assignments
-Difficulty expressing ideas and getting to the point; difficulty expressing feelings
-Blaming others for their problems
-Distractibility; difficulty maintaining attention for long periods of time
-Difficulty controlling impulses
-Poor social skills: students may demonstrate antisocial behaviors
-Over-sensitivity to criticism

Every effort should be made for learners with multiple needs to “shine” in the areas of strength, both for socio-emotional gratification as well as for reinforcement of their motivation to learn. p11

Sometimes gifted students have other issues like anxiety that are addressed with accommodations (for example, giving more time on tests, substituting written for oral presentations, etc.). p16

While grouping gifted students together has positive social, emotional, and motivational effects, what is being taught is still of primary importance. (Rogers,
2002, p. 259) Instructional provisions for gifted students can often be implemented more efficiently when the students are grouped together; some can only be implemented when they are grouped together. “Indeed, a major consideration in the development of abstract reasoning skills is providing a setting in which students interact in discussions of significant issues with a teacher who asks appropriately challenging questions with other students at a similar intellectual level.” (Maker,1986, p. 118) p21

• self-criticism more than children of similar age; mistrust of own ability,
perhaps as a result of uneven skill set p42

HEIGHTENED
SENSITIVITY AND CREATIVITY may be demonstrated by:

• strong creative and imaginative abilities

• a keen sense of humour that is often off-beat

• the ability to see unusual and diverse relationships; tolerance for ambiguity

• questioning, or even rejecting, the known in order to invent for themselves

• impatience with repetition of instructional content, especially from a single perspective p43

Social/Emotional Support Strategies
-Tap into students’ strengths by using bibliotherapy (the use of books to change behaviour and/or reduce stress), cinematherapy (a form of therapy or self-help that uses movies, particularly videos, as therapeutic tools), biographies and autobiographies, inspirational quotes, and self-help and how-to books (Halsted, 2002)
-Offer peer or group counseling sessions to address issues of self-concept, self-esteem, fear of failure, negative interactions with teachers, and poor peer relations
-Encourage individual counseling to address chronic behavioral or familial difficulties
-Encourage the use of reflective journals employing various modalities to address issues of self-esteem or self-efficacy
-Conduct short- and long-term goal setting sessions