How can I Support Twice-exceptional Students in the Classroom?

Twice-exceptional students include gifted learners who exhibit the following indicators:

• Discrepancy between verbal and performance ability.
• Extremely frustrated by school.
• Auditory and/or visual processing problems which may cause slow response, work delay or an appearance of thinking slowly.
• Short-term or long-term memory issues.
• Motor difficulties exhibited by clumsiness, poor handwriting or problems completing paper-and-pencil type tasks.
• Lack of organizational skills and/or study skills; appearing “messy.”
• Struggle to think in a linear fashion; difficulty following directions.
• Easily frustrated; giving up quickly on tasks; fear of being wrong or making mistakes.
• Difficulty explaining or expressing ideas, getting-to-the-point and/or expressing feelings.
• Holding others responsibility for their problems while writing off their achievements as luck.
• Easily distracted; unable to maintain attention for long periods of time.
• Impulsive
• Poor social skills; demonstrating antisocial behavior.
• Highly sensitive to criticism.
• Deficient or extremely uneven academic skills which causes a lack of academic initiative, tends to appear academically demotivated, avoids school tasks, and frequent fails to complete assignments.

Twice-exceptional students should ideally receive instructions as a special group for at least part of the day. Additional teaching strategies that have proven to be successful for these students include:

• Allowing extra time on tests
• Providing oral rather than written exams
• Having writers take notes for them so that the learner can concentrate on what is being said
• Providing more challenging material
• Accommodating the student’s individual learning style
• Awareness and integration of each learner’s strengths and passions

Learn More… Take this course: Differentiation for Gifted Learners in the Classroom

Discuss Here: What are some ways you have supported twice-exceptional students in your classroom?