Twice Exceptional Education

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First and foremost, educators and parents need to understand that twice-exceptional learners, such as the example above, do exist. According to Delisle and Galbraith (2002), “Gifted people with disabilities have been called the “unseen minority”. Researcher, Nicholas Colangelo, has observed that when teacher and parent groups are asked to imagine a “gifted child,” they rarely picture a gifted child with disabilities.” (p 18). This lack of understanding in society could be the reason why so many twice exceptional students are not becoming the person who they potentially could become. Even worse, teachers across America are not getting the quality training they need to provide the proper services for these and other gifted learners.
Assouline, S.G., Colangel, N., Foley-Nicpon, M. (2013) conducted a survey called the “Twice-Exceptional Needs Assessment” for a group in the educational and psychological community, showing two key results. Assouline et al.’s (2013) found that although there was knowledge of twice-exceptionality among the sample, teachers and other professionals lack experience in dealing with specific exceptionalities. The second finding was that gifted education teachers know much more about twice-exceptionality than regular education teachers do. Assouline et al.’s (2013) states, “Because twice-exceptional students interact with
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Provide tangible goals, positive verbal and written feedback, as well as, reward systems and incentives. Developing private signals between the teacher and the students will help with students who don't want to appear different. Modeling social interactions will greatly benefit them when strengthening their relationships with other peers. Teachers should be consistent with rewards and consequences. Most importantly teachers need to take the time to get to know their gifted ADHD student and take a personal interest in