College for the Twice Exceptional: Presentation to the Mensa Annual Gathering 2016
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Twice exceptional students (those who are gifted and learning disabled) have special needs when they apply to college. This presentation examines what twice-exceptional (2e) is, what 2E students need to know about the college selection process and provides tips and resources for 2e college students.
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College for the Twice Exceptional: Presentation to the Mensa Annual Gathering 2016
- 38. Tino, Student at Landmark
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Hello, and welcome to College for the Twice-Exceptional: How 2e Students Can Survive, and Thrive, at College. We’ll be talking about how to find the right college for students who are gifted and have learning differences and what to expect when you get there.
- My name is Lessa Scherrer. I’m an independent educational consultant who works directly with students and families to keep them stress free, organized and on track for college. Part of what I do is to help research colleges and build an appropriate college list. You can find out more about me on my website, Your College Your Way.com. So let’s start with “What is Twice-exceptional?”
- A twice-exceptional student is one who is gifted but also has an SLD, a specific learning disability or difference. You’ll note that although there are many disabilities, or learning differences, ranging from physical disabilities, such as low vision or deafness, to mental health issues and mental retardation, but what we’re working with here are specifically those disorders which affect learning in the typical school environment.
- How many gifted students also have a learning disability? It can be as many as one in seven. These learning disabilities may be invisible in very young gifted children, because they are able to use their intelligence to compensate, up to a point. A child who struggles with reading or attention may still be able to answer questions in class because of an amazing memory, for example, or conversely, a student who struggles with working memory might be able to answer questions by quickly looking up the answer on the text book page.
- Usually these learning differences are revealed in the IQ testing for gifted programs in school. A large discrepancy between scores in one area vs another is a tip off. For example, if your student scores in the 99th%ile in verbal or mathematical ability but 24%ile in processing speed, you might have a twice-exceptional child.
- Our specific learning differences generally fall into one of two categories, functional learning differences, which cause problems in a classroom environment but not necessarily at home, and the cognitive learning differences, which affect people in more areas of their life.
- These are the more common names of these functional learning disorders. I’m sure you’re all familiar with dyslexia, but dyscalculia and dysgraphia may be new to you. The functional learning differences cause problems primarily with schoolwork in the gifted child.
- Dyslexia is commonly thought of as difficulty reading and spelling, but it goes a bit further than that. Dyslexics tend to have trouble with spatial reasoning (hence the letter reversals: b, d, and p are all the same letter, oriented differently in space) and with using symbolic language. In order to understand a pun or other joke, you need to have good word retrieval skills. This is one of the areas where a gifted dyslexic may be compensating. A student who has strong verbal skills but struggles with spatial reasoning and is a “slow reader” may not get the support he or she needs for her dyslexia. Many dyslexic high school students really struggle with learning foreign languages precisely because their word retrieval skills can be weak, although they can usually get a good grasp of sign language. Many colleges will accept several years’ study of ASL as fulfilling their foreign language requirement for admission.
- Dyslexia seems to stem from a differently organized brain—while some dyslexics struggle with symbolic language, their ability to think untethered to sequence or space can make them great innovators and artists. Anyone who wants to learn more about dyslexia should definitely read The Dyslexic Advantage by Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide. There’s a link to their Dyslexic Advantage blog at the end of this presentation.
- Dyscalculia is similar to dyslexia, but in the realm of mathematics. Dyscalculia often shows up in elementary school, in children who can’t or won’t memorize their times tables. They struggle with place value and using a number line because their ability to work with numbers in space is shaky. Like dyslexics, these people have trouble managing time, reading maps and following sequences (algorithms). Gifted students who struggle with dyscalculia can usually compensate by memorizing algorithms and mnemonics to apply but don’t have any real mathematical understanding. I should probably point out here that these learning differences can be mild, moderate or severe. I have a mild dyscalculia myself. I can tell time, but I can’t count elapsed time correctly to save my life.
- Dysgraphia seems to be very common among twice-exceptional students. Parents and teachers commonly excuse this by saying “his brain is going faster than his hand” or “he’s got doctor handwriting” but dysgraphia can be extremely frustrating, especially for young children who are being graded on their ability to correctly form letters and write sentences and paragraphs. Dysgraphia can sometimes be helped with occupational therapy, or by allowing the child to dictate or type their written work.
- Cognitive differences are those that affect a person’s life even outside of the classroom. They tend to more adversely effect the activities of daily living than dyslexia and dyscalculia. The biggest problem for gifted people with these kinds of functional deficits is the accusation of being lazy, rather than impaired, because they can compensate to greater extent than the non-gifted.
- Executive function deficits have to do with organizing and running your life. Counselor and Family Therapist Andrew Mahoney described it as “really needing a secretary,” and indeed, this is what many adults with EF issues do to cope. Unlike dyscalculia, where I can’t count elapsed time, the person with executive function issues can’t keep track of time, often wildly over- or underestimating the amount of time needed for a task, for example. Since they have trouble planning, they struggle with deciding what needs to be done next or where to find the information they need for the next step. If you’ve ever had a migraine or concussion, that trouble tracking is an extreme version what executive function deficit can feel like. Not surprisingly, the college admissions process is extremely difficult for people with EF issues.
- Many people assume that people with EF issues actually have ADHD, because ADHD is more familiar. Although the end results may look the same—missing homework--where the student with executive function issues gives up on writing a paper, for example, because he/she doesn’t have enough information, the ADHD student has too much information, and can’t figure out how to prioritize it. Squirrels are an excellent model for people with ADHD—they work very hard gathering and hiding nuts for winter, but almost immediately forget where they’ve buried them. Putting completed homework in the backpack never to be seen again—same thing.
- Autism seems to have a higher than normal incidence in the gifted population. People on the spectrum can have trouble communicating with and understanding human behavior. They tend to have very intense interests and can lack the interpersonal skills to recognize when they’ve overshared. They can also have problems with being overwhelmed in highly stimulating environments. All of these issues can make dorm living particularly stressful.
- As I’m sure you noticed, there is quite a bit of overlap between features of these cognitive learning differences and typical gifted behaviors—sensory sensitivity, deep interest in arcane subjects, jumping quickly from one topic of interest to another, procrastination due to perfectionism, being so focused on learning that you lose track of time or forget what is going on around you. So it’s important that any suspected cognitive deficits be diagnosed by a professional, not a teacher or a neighbor, and preferably a professional with experience with gifted kids. Let me tell you a story about my middle son. He’s what we used to call the “strong, silent type.” He doesn’t speak unless he has something to say (if you can imagine that in this day and age). He was homeschooled from 7th and 11th grade. After 11th grade, he took a trip to Australia with People-to-People and his trip leader pointedly mentioned to the group that “if anyone has issue with autism or Asperger’s, you need to let us leaders know before we leave,” while pointedly looking at us. When I told her that he was not on spectrum in any way, she claimed, “Oh, I didn’t mean to imply,” but he was the only introvert in the room, so I find that hard to believe.
- This is the first of three or four slides with lots of tiny writing on them. I apologize, and would like to point out that you can get access to all these slides on my LinkedIn profile: linkedin/com/in/lessascherrer. I will share the URL again at the end of the presentation. This table contrasts gifted behaviors you see in the classroom with the typical behaviors of a twice-exceptional student. For example, gifted students learn quickly and retain information with less repetition, unless they are dyslexic. Students may have high verbal ability but struggle with sharing that ability in writing due to dyslexia or dysgraphia, or may use language inappropriately due to ADHD or autism. Gifted students have a highly developed sense of humor, and 2e students may use that sense of humor to divert attention from school failure—making a joke or rude remarks when called on to read in class, for example. Where gifted children can be independent and “able to teach themselves,” 2e students need frequent feedback and teacher support—this doesn’t mean they aren’t gifted!!!
- If a child is compensating for their disability in the classroom, why bother to identify? For one thing, it’s exhausting struggling to keep up with everyone all day. A 2e student may finish high school with a C average (or less) due to a combination of undiagnosed dyslexia and boredom. Or maybe she dropped out and got her GED. Either way, she is not setting herself up for an appropriate choice of college. Another story: both of my sisters identified as gifted in elementary school and finally diagnosed as dyslexic in college. The younger one had tested as “a slow reader” in third grade and got informal accommodations for her reading speed. The other was forever labeled “not working up to her potential.” Guess which one graduated from high school?
- We know that many if not most 21st century jobs will require abachelor’s degree. Yet, according to the National Longitudinal Study as quoted in USA Today, 79% of students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders do not pursue a four-year college degree. This can be due to school failure (and expecting more of the same in college). Moreover, the college admission process can be very difficult for 2e students. Their deficits may make it hard to show their true skills on standardized testing like ACT and SAT, hard to keep tasks and deadlines organized while applying, and hard to find a college campus with a sufficient level of rigor for the giftedness and support for their learning difference.
- Testing is the other reason to officially identify a student as having a learning disability. Almost all students with these learning issues have trouble with standardized testing, and as we know, the SAT, ACT and AP exams are still important components of the college application at most schools. Students who have informal diagnoses and informal accommodations (individual teachers adjust assignments, deadlines or testing requirements) cannot use those accommodations to prove special needs to the ACT and College Board. Only students with formal IEPs and 504 Plans have sufficient documentation to get testing accommodations for national exams.
- As you can see here, ACT requires formal documentation before granting special testing situations. Some of the accommodations include time and a half, double-time and “stop the clock”, testing over multiple days, use of a scribe or computer for the writing test, or extended time on the writing test only. ACT will allow individual students to initiate the accommodation process, although they strongly encourage students to go through their guidance counselor.
- In contrast, the College Board, purveyor of the SAT, PSAT and AP exams, requires a school official to initiate the accommodation process. Like ACT, you need formal documentation of the disability, relevant educational, developmental and medical history, the comprehensive testing and techniques used in arriving at the diagnosis, the functional limitations of the student, the specific accommodations requested and the professional credentials of the evaluator. Unlike ACT, this report can be up to 5 years old, but honestly, you need all of this information to document the need for disability services at the college-level, and that report needs to be three years old or less. Bottom line: if you need accommodations, be prepared to go through the entire formal identification process at some time during high school.
- Almost 90% of colleges in the US will have some sort of Office of Disability Services. Keep in mind, just because a college claims to have services, it doesn’t mean it’s a program. It is very possible to find a college that is both rigorous enough for a gifted student and supportive enough for a student with a learning disability. But you have to ask a lot of questions. Let me tell you about Jenny [not her real name]. She is a Davidson Young Scholar who also had ADHD. This is what her mother told me:
- “For [Jenny], it was very important to visit the disabilities offices at her 3 highest choices. Smith did not give her the best financial package, but they knew and wanted to work with her ADD and the person in the office shared things they had done with other students and that she should try some and see what works for her. They suggested separate testing and so on. On the other side, the school with the best Neuro Science program and money, that her parents would have chosen, had a Disability officer who did not think Jenny was her job (No, we would induce cheating if you test separately since we have not the staff to supervise-I am not sure you qualify for any support)” (Personal communication from a parent)
- You need the formal identification process if you feel you need accommodations. According to one study, 63% of postsecondary students who had documentation of a disability in high school did not consider themselves to have that disability by the time they entered college. Fewer than 30% of college students with disabilities disclose their disability. That number drops to 20% when it comes to students who go on to receive accommodations or supports while in college.
- In many cases, you need to jump through a lot of hoops to get disability services on a college campus. Is it worth it? It really could be. What you don’t want to happen is you suddenly realize it’s Thanksgiving, you have finals coming up and you have no idea how to study for them. Or you have bombed the first test in a class due to timing issues, and THEN you go to the professor to ask for accommodations. (Probably not going to happen) Better to have those supports in place and not need them, than to need them and not have them.
- So the decision is yours whether you want to disclose a potential disability or not. I think there are good reasons to do so, and to do so early in your college search. Elizabeth Hamblet at LDAdvisory.com says: During [the]’ college search, students should use the Internet and any college tours they take to gather information about the services and accommodations available. Students should feel very comfortable calling colleges’ disability services office to ask questions. They should be reassured that no one at that office will call the admissions office to let them know that the student called and likely has a disability. So they should make sure that they get all of the information they seek without fear of it affecting their application.”
- Slide #2 that is too small to read. Again, the slides are all available at linkedin.com/lessascherrer. This is a list of questions you might ask the Office of Disability Services or Student Support services in order to see how accommodating they really will be.
- Most colleges have mechanisms in place for 2e students to get extra time on tests and/or assignments, to get access to assistive technology like the Kurzweil reader. They can provide you with or work with your professors to provide audio versions of lectures, help with note-taking, extra tutoring, etc.
- Some colleges have created special support programs for students with learning disabilities. These programs are sometimes created to support a specific type of student (autism or ADHD, for example) and sometimes they just provide extra support for all students who need it. For example, students with cognitive issues and those with mental health challenges both benefit from a weekly check-in with a staff member.
- The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver (obviously). DU has 5600 undergraduates, and tuition is $44,000. DU is notable for its study abroad programs—nearly every student studies abroad and the school pays for them to do so—and for their graduation and placement rates. 93% of the class of 2014 graduated in 4 years. 97% of those students were employed or in grad school six months after graduation. I’m describing this like a regular private college because it is a regular private college. Only a small number of their students take part in their Learning Effectiveness Program, a unique program of support for students with learning difficulties.
- The Learning Effectiveness Program is housed in the School of Education. LEP provides trained full-time staff mentors for students with a variety of learning differences, including dyslexia and other learning disabilities, ADHD, autism spectrum, mental health and other disorders. Students meet weekly with their mentor who helps them stay on track and talks through any issues they may be having. Students also have access to time management and organization specialists and a variety of tutors (grad students and adjunct faculty, not other undergraduates) who can help them in any class. What’s the catch? The LEP costs an extra $3,000 per semester. Students who don’t participate in the LEP can still access tutoring, extra time for tests and other accommodations through the separate disability services office.
- Most schools with special programs for learning disabilities charge a fee for regular check-ins with staff counselors, specialized help with organization, and extra tutoring. The schools that don’t charge an extra fee are Landmark and Beacon Colleges (which are dedicated LD colleges) and Augsburg College’s CLASS program. Curry College claims they are explicitly looking for twice-exceptional students. I was able to visit campus last fall and, although their PAL support program is great, the level of rigor at Curry is not what I would consider comfortable for a gifted student.
- Where the LEP is a program grafted onto a traditional liberal arts college, Landmark College, in Putney, VT was designed specifically for dyslexic students, and now serve students with all kinds of learning disabilities. The college is known for its innovative educational model, which combines learning strategies with the latest in assistive technology. The students are expected to become confident, empowered and independent learners. Landmark offers two-year and, now, four-year degrees as well as summer programs for students who will be attending other colleges or who are still in high school.
- I was able to tour Landmark last fall. This is some random sidewalk art I found outside the student center. I have to tell you that the thing that most struck me in talking to students at Landmark was their stories. They all started with “I had failed out of 2 (or 3 or 4) different colleges, and it wasn’t until I got to Landmark that I found out why.” My tour guide, Elizabeth, told us how she had felt like such a failure for so long because the rest of her family members are high-achieving PhDs and she couldn’t even stay in school for an entire semester. She was diagnosed with “a learning disability” in high school, but never told what the disability was or how to deal with it. When she arrived at Landmark, they evaluated her and told her she had ADHD. “And then they explained what that was and how I could work with it, instead of against it,” she said. She was totally at peace with herself, and had discovered that, like many with ADHD, she is very artistic. She even showed us the first sculpture she’d ever done, in the display case in the administration building. It was a life-sized, perfectly lifelike horse’s head.
- . Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly for a school whose mission is to serve dyslexic students, the bookstore has few textbooks in it, so it’s difficult to assess the amount of rigor. However, the academic curriculum—and the individualized, holistic accommodation, coaching and training that each student receives—is designed to prepare students with the skills, discipline and self-understanding necessary for continued success. Those students don’t only go on to state colleges or small private schools. Brown University has accepted students from Landmark in the past. The staff clearly care about the kids and the kids feel like they belong to a community. Even though they only have club sports (soccer and baseball) the kids come out to support their teams. The school is small and their facilities necessarily limited, but it seems a comfortable place, and the students I spoke with didn’t feel constrained by a limited curriculum.
- Landmark’s program in Social Pragmatics for students on the autism spectrum was particularly impressive. In addition to the first year experience workshops—which at Landmark means learning about the neurological basis for your learning difference and strategies for living with it—Social Prag students meet weekly to discuss issues they’ve run into on campus. As a group, they brainstorm what the puzzling situation might have meant and what students should do in that situation in the future. A very impressive student named Spencer spoke at the student panel I attended. He was clearly on the spectrum but spoke well, made eye contact with his audience (although it felt a bit forced) and afterwards sought out the athletic director (who ran the panel) to thank him for including him on it. Shook his hand and looked him straight in the eye. I was proud of him and I don’t even know him!
- So, you’ve done your research, found the school of your dreams and been accepted. What next? Next you need to contact the Office of Disability Services and find out what documentation you need to access services. Be sure to do this as soon as possible after you’ve been accepted because it might take awhile to get a full evaluation and written report, if you don’t already have a current one.
- If you have an IEP or 504 plan in high school, you should know that special education services end at age 18 or at HS graduation. Colleges are under no legal obligation to offer services to students with learning disabilities. Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) requires colleges to provide appropriate adjustments as necessary to ensure that it does not discriminate on the basis of ability, but it does not mandate what those adjustments should be. There’s a very important bit of information in the middle of this tiny type: Whereas in high school, the school was responsible for communicating accommodation plans with parents, FERPA regulations say that college cannot communicate with parents about their adult child. This includes everything from report card grades to health issues. The responsibility is squarely on the student.
- Here’s the bottom line: college students are adults. They will be expected to act like adults. You will have to learn to advocate for yourself. Once you submit your information and qualify for services, you will usually get a letter from the ODS that you would then bring to your professors at the beginning to the semester to ask for the accommodations you need to be successful. Generally, if a professor is giving you a hard time or denying your verified accommodations, you can get the Disability Services office staff involved to make sure that happens.
- Accommodations usually come in two forms: changes to level the playing field in regular classes, and changes to school or graduation requirements (waiving foreign language graduation requirement for dyslexic students, or aural skills proficiency for deaf music majors). Typical test accommodations include extra time, distraction-free rooms (sometimes in Disability Services Office), readers and note-takers. Assistive technology: Special readers, talk-to-text, text-to-talk Note-taking: Professor provide typed notes or recruit a note-taker from the class. Ideally this is done anonymously, so the note-taker doesn’t know who needs them (privacy) Many colleges, like the University of Denver, are training professors to build universal access principals into their curriculum.
- There is an amazing amount of assistive technology out there and almost none of it is available to K-12 students. This is a travesty, but a little bit beside the point this afternoon. Twice-exceptional college students will have access to publicly-available software as well as school only programs like Kurzweil Reader.
- If a school offers assistive technology, it will most often offer access to Kurzweil Reader. The Reader is a piece of technology developed for dyslexic students, which allows text-to-speech, speech-to-text (dictation), note-taking and marking up capabilities for online textbooks and your dictated papers, etc.
- X Mind allows you to dictate into a graphic organizer. Where the Kurzweil Reader is useful doing day-to-day homework, X Mind is for generating written research papers, projects, etc.
- What about that 63% of students with documented disability that no longer consider themselves disabled? Colleges recognize that not all of the students they admit will be 100% college ready. Typically math and college-level writing are the biggest sticking points, with as many as 60% of students at some universities requiring remedial classwork. In addition, even students who don’t need remedial classes need support for college-level study skills. So just about every campus hassome kind of Academic Success Center that any student can access for help with their classes. Many schools have “First-year experience” programs (my kids call them “N00b class”) that focus on study skills and writing in conjunction with a required freshman English class like Hum110 at Reed or Western Civ at Carthage College. Of course, the traditional ways of getting help on class material are to visit the professor or TA during office hours, and to use discussion sections to expound on and allow questions about the current lecture. All of these avenues for help are available for students who may have had an IEP or 504 in high school but don’t need or want as much help as they would get through the Disability Services office.
- In addition, the advanced in personal productivity software has made assistive technology available to anyone who wants it. For example, Microsoft OneNote is an online note-taking software. Like the Kurzweil Reader, it allows active reading, color-coding, etc.; Dragon is voice recognition software which provides dysgraphic students with an easier way to do their writing. Both microsoft and the Apple operating system provide text-to-speech capabilities. And LiveScribe makes a pen that records lectures, and syncs the recording to what you write. This is really cool because if you put the pen at a particular spot in your notes, it will play back the recording from that particular spot. These electronic study and organization programs can help anyone manage the increased demands of college curriculum.
- So, you’ve picked your college. You’ve got your accommodations in place. You’re packing up the car. What else do you need to plan for? The transition to campus for all students is equal parts fear and exhilaration. For students who have learning differences, the fear can greatly outweigh the exhilaration. These tips from Boston University can help the student take practical steps toward being ready to move to campus. Basically, you should use that summer after graduation to make sure that you are ready emotionally as well as academically to be responsible for yourself. Hopefully you are already in charge of your own medication, and waking yourself up in the morning.
- Students should know it’s okay to be selfish about the things you need to keep you safe and productive. If that means you have to change roommates so you can get a good night’s sleep, so be it. Additionally, helping students learn stress-reduction techniques like mindfulness, meditation or yoga is a great idea. Encourage the student to contact the counseling center at the college before they graduate (while the office is still open) to be sure there will be emotional support ready for them. And encourage them to be kind to themselves. It may look like everyone else has it all together, but they’re all fronting, too.
- I want to encourage you to get this book, “Learning Outside the Lines,” It was written by two former Landmark College students who then went on to Brown University. “After reading the personal stories of the two authors, anyone reading the book will think: “If these two guys can graduate from high school, and then get into and graduate from an Ivy League school, anyone can. How did they do it?” The next several chapters describe specific, useful study skills and savvy tips for succeeding in the classroom and doing well on tests and papers. They cover note-taking, test-taking and setting up systems to help you run your life at college. What I found most helpful are the specific chapters on how to read a textbook and how to participate in class. These are things that no study skills teacher teaches, as we assume “good students” figure it out for themselves. Authors Mooney and Cole lay it out for you. The book is written in an engaging style that is easy and fun to read.
- Okay! I’m happy to answer whatever questions you may have. I encourage you to visit these other websites for additional information about twice-exceptional students and their needs in high school and college. At the bottom is the URL for my Linked In page where you can download a copy of this presentation.
- Thank you very much! If you have any questions about any part of the college admissions process, I’m happy to answer them. Just grab me here or shoot me an email.