What is the term when students have both a disability and an area of giftedness?
Definition. Gifted students with learning disabilities are a unique subgroup of students who demonstrate both. superior intellectual ability and specific learning problems. Also known as “twice exceptional” and. “dually exceptional,” gifted students with LD have cognitive, psychological, and academic needs that.
Can you be gifted and have a specific learning disorder, like dyslexia or dyscalculia, or even ADHD? Sure can! This is often called "Twice Exceptional." The symptoms look different for children who are gifted, and parents and teachers will still want to identify and support these children.
The research from John Hopkins University shows us that the two are not mutually exclusive. A child can be “gifted” in one area and have a learning disability in another area of life. Therefore, a “gifted” child may need a 504 plan or an individualized educational plan (IEP).
Twice exceptional or 2e is a term used to describe students who are both intellectually gifted (as determined by an accepted standardized assessment) and learning disabled, which includes students with dyslexia.
Giftedness is a form of neurodiversity; the pathways leading to it are enormously variable, and so are children's resulting learning needs.
The child may be both gifted and have ADHD, which presents as an inconsistent (or even average) performance across school subjects. It can be difficult to correctly address a common situation like this even for experienced teachers.
On its own, giftedness is not defined as a disability or special need. Some gifted students do have special needs (known as "twice exceptional" or "2e"), but most don't.
Here are some strategies to help you deal with these students: Keep verbal instructions short and simple. Have students repeat directions back to you to be sure they understand. Give multiple examples and allow more practice than usual (Woolfolk, 2010).
Partly for these reasons, students who are gifted or talented have sometimes been regarded as the responsibility of special education, along with students with other sorts of disabilities.
Many people have giftedness as one part of their neurodiversity experience, and they may also have other kinds of diagnoses, for example ADHD. In the past, it's been called being gifted and twice exceptional if you have an additional diagnosis or learning difference (e.g., dyslexia).
What is the difference between gifted and twice-exceptional?
They're called “twice-exceptional,” or 2e, which means that they have exceptional ability and disability. They are gifted but they also face learning or developmental challenges. Children who are both gifted and challenged can be tough to understand.
An autistic person who's also gifted is considered “twice exceptional” (2e). Giftedness and autism are types of exceptionalities. When children are both intellectually gifted and have a neurobiological difference, motor skills issue, or learning disability, they're 2e kids. Examples of 2e include: gifted autism.

Stealth dyslexia is a relatively recent term that describes children who are using coping strategies to hide their reading difficulty. This can go on until a child is at least 11 years of age. Around that age, work around strategies such as sight word memorization and guessing unknown words tend to fall apart.
Dyslexia is a learning disability that impairs reading ability. Dysgraphia impacts handwriting and fine motor skills. Dyscalculia makes math difficult. Learn about the symptoms and treatments for these and other LDs commonly associated with ADHD.
In many settings, having special intellectual or creative abilities can be more of a disability than a gift. Most of the time, the governance of institutions is set to the pace of the vast majority of people in the high-density middle of the ability curve.
Hyperlexia is advanced and unexpected reading skills and abilities in children way beyond their chronological age. It is a fairly recently named condition (1967) although earlier descriptions of precocious reading do exist.
A slew of research over the last few decades has shown that gifted individuals – whether children or adults – differ from their neurotypical (read: “normal”) peers in a variety of physiological and psychological ways.
Many profoundly gifted students are likely misdiagnosed with autism, whilst many autistic children are likely undiagnosed as gifted. Given the incredibly complex, and similar, nature of both giftedness and autism, the diagnosis itself is rather unimportant.
Second, high ability can mask ADHD, and attention deficits and impulsivity tend to depress the test scores as well as the high academic performance that many schools rely on to identify giftedness.
Many gifted children are being mis-diagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The gifted child's characteristics of intensity, sensitivity, impatience, and high motor activity can easily be mistaken for ADHD.
Do most gifted kids have ADHD?
Gifted students have abilities that exceed those of their typical peers. They learn faster, are inquisitive, curious, and are able to quickly understand complex concepts. However, some gifted students have behavioral problems that correspond with ADHD, so much so that they are diagnosed with the disorder.
A gifted child's IQ will fall within these ranges: Mildly gifted: 115 to 130. Moderately gifted: 130 to 145. Highly gifted: 145 to 160.
IQ and other tests for giftedness are optimal around age 5.
Gifted children often struggle socially and emotionally. Social interactions are difficult and they don't always know how to behave or read cues from others.
Exceptional students include children who are gifted and children who have disabilities. Children who are considered gifted are those children with superior intellectual development and who are capable of high performance.
The term “twice-exceptional,” also referred to as “2E,” is used to describe gifted children who have the characteristics of gifted students with the potential for high achievement and give evidence of one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria.
Although there are no standard IQ levels of intellectual giftedness, some experts suggest the following IQ ranges: Mildly gifted: 115 to 129. Moderately gifted: 130 to 144. ighly gifted: 145 to 159.
The gifted student's uneven or asynchronous development across the cognitive, emotional, social and physical domains is a significant risk factor that renders them particularly vulnerable (Roedell, 1984, 1986; Webb, 1993). They often feel 'out of place,' and different from the peer group (Morelock, 1992).
The problems gifted children sometimes face with socializing often stem from their asynchrony and educational setting. Asynchronous development, or uneven development, is often considered a core trait of giftedness. These students may be college age intellectually but still 12 in terms of their social skills.
The term “neurodivergent” describes people whose brain differences affect how their brain works. That means they have different strengths and challenges from people whose brains don't have those differences. The possible differences include medical disorders, learning disabilities and other conditions.
What is divergently gifted?
The Challenging Type 2 gifted are the divergently gifted, who possess high levels of creativity. They do not conform to the system and often have conflicts with teachers and parents. They get frustrated, as the school system does not recognize their abilities.
Neurodivergent is a non-medical umbrella term that describes people with variation in their mental functions, and can include conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other neurological or developmental conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The Intellectually Exceptional Child 2. The Physically Handicapped Child3. The Emotionally Disturbed Child4. The Multi-Handicapped Child.
According to clinical records, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and learning disabilities are the three diagnoses most often reported in comorbidity with giftedness [9, 10].
- Outstanding critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Above average sensitivity, causing them to react more intensely to sounds, tastes, smells, etc.
- Strong sense of curiosity.
- Low self-esteem due to perfectionism.
- Poor social skills.
The difference is that the gifted child may be more selective and able to filter out and discard certain sources of information whereas the child with Asperger's will not (Cash). The child with Asperger's will simply memorize everything there is to know about a cer- tain and sometimes bizarre topic.
Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display similar traits, which leads many parents to question: is ADHD a form of autism? In short, the answer is “no”. While autism and ADHD are both neurological conditions, they're not the same thing.
Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have an amazing ability and talent. The condition can be congenital (genetic or inborn), or can be acquired later in childhood, or even in adults.
Neurodiversity is a range of commonly co-occurring 'conditions' related to processing or cognitive differences. It includes Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD, and more. Another widely used term is Specific Learning Difference (SpLD).
Dyslexia can be developmental (genetic) or acquired (resulting from a traumatic brain injury or disease), and there are several types of Dyslexia including phonological dyslexia, rapid naming dyslexia, double deficit dyslexia, surface dyslexia, and visual dyslexia.
Is Hyperlexia a type of dyslexia?
Hyperlexia can be the opposite of dyslexia, a learning disability characterized by having difficulty reading and spelling. However, unlike children with hyperlexia, dyslexic children can normally understand what they are reading and have good communication skills.
The term dual or multiple exceptionality (DME) is used in the UK to describe children who have both high learning potential and a special educational need through a learning difficulty or a disability.
Multiple exceptionalities: A combination of learning or other disorders, impairments, or physical disabilities that is of such a nature as to require, for educational achievement, the services of one or more teachers holding qualifications in special education and the provision of support services appropriate for such ...
Giftedness falls into one or more of the following areas: intellectual, academic, creative, artistic and leadership.
The term exceptionalities in K–12 schooling refers to both disabilities and giftedness. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act '04 (IDEA '04), the national law that guarantees an appropriate education to students with disabilities, recognizes fourteen disability categories. These are: Autism. Deaf-blindness.