Twice exceptional students

1. Twice Exceptional Students
Strategies for Success

2. Who are 2E Students?
 2E or twice exceptional students are
students who have a high cognitive
ability in addition to areas of challenge
or disability.
 Of the 13 disability categories identified
under IDEA all but one (mental
retardation) can exist simultaneously
with cognitive gifts.
 These students are difficult to identify
because their gifts often mask their
disability. This makes them at risk for
not reaching their true potential.
Source

3. Some Common 2E Combinations

4. Strategies for Success with 2E Students
 Twice exceptional students have
learning profiles that are uneven;
sometimes these students shine and
sometimes they struggle.
 We can use the three key principles of
learning to maximize their strengths and
support their areas of challenge or
disability.
Source

5. Three Key Principles of Learning
 Activate the students’ prior knowledge.
 Help them build conceptual frameworks that organize fragmented
ideas into meaningful wholes.
 Help them develop self-regulatory, intentional approaches to
learning.
Source

6. Individuals do not Learn at the Same Rate
 How can we begin to use time
more flexibly and provide more
time for students who need it
while allowing others to
progress more quickly?
 Dynamic Assessment
 These are brief conversations or
formative assessments to
discover what your students
know, what they do not yet
know, and what misconceptions
they have.
Source

7. Allow 2E Students Extended Time to
Process Information
 This can be done by tiering
assignments.
 Using the Universal Design Theory
provide multiple access and ways to
interact with information.
 Some Students need more practice to
master the basics.
 Some students need to focus on
enrichment or challenging activities.

8. Teaching to Conceptual Frameworks
Conceptual Frameworks
 Less is More! Take fewer
conceptual ideas deeper into the
curriculum.
 Identifying the big ideas allows
students to concentrate on the most
important learning activities.
 For example instead of completing
15 similar math problems for
homework. Students can finish one
problem and then write a reflective
analysis.
Reflective Analysis
Example
 Assign one math problem for homework
 The student solves the math problem and
then answers the following reflective
questions about the problem
 How and why they used this method to
solve the problem.
 Where this kind of math might be useful
in real life.
 What they learned about solving this
problem that they can apply to future
problem-solving

9. Use Graphic Organizers
 The use of graphic organizers is a critical instructional strategy which
allows students to connect ideas, both new information and prior
knowledge.
 Graphic organizers or web maps can be edited and changed as
learning occurs allowing students to reflect on the process of
learning.
 This teaches metacognitive awareness allowing students to be in
control of their own learning.
Source

10. Structure of Learning Environments
 Students need time to think about what they know and how the new
information fits into what they already know.
 Students need time to write out these ideas in a diagram, graphic
organizer or concept map.
 Students need time to collaborate with peers, talk it out with a partner
or small group and reevaluate their thinking.
 Students need to see you use the metacognitive approach so they can
learn through the process of modeling.

11. Advocacy and Emotional Support
 Twice exceptional students need to learn
self advocacy skills.
 They need to understand their strengths as
well as their challenges and find ways to
share this information with their teachers.
 It is important that with twice exceptional
learners especially those with learning
disabilities that we maintain the
complexity of learning.
 If you decrease the complexity of learning
this undermines the 2E student.
 Keep the complexity level high while
adjusting time, structure of learning, and
offering additional support.
Source

12. Technology Integration
 Technology can be used to support the
challenges twice exceptional students
face.
 Technology can be used to nurture the
gifts of the twice exceptional student.
 Technology can provide multiple means
of acquiring information, conceptual
understanding, as well as, multiple ways
to show what they have learned.
Source

13. Final Thoughts
“ Even our most gifted students with learning
disabilities need us to teach with clarity, to make
ideas explicit, and to build the relationships across
ideas to anchor learning. As we work to meet the
needs of our twice-exceptional students we increase
our power to reach all our students.”
(Colman, 2005)

14. References
Baum, S. M. (2004). Twice-exceptional and special populations of gifted students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Berninger, V. W., & Abbott, R. D. (2013). Differences Between Children With Dyslexia Who Are and Are Not Gifted in Verbal
Reasoning. Gifted Child Quarterly, 57(4), 223-233. doi:10.1177/0016986213500342
Coleman, M. (2005). Academic Strategies That Work for Gifted Students With Learning Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional
Children, 38(1), 28-32. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://www.iag-online.org/resources/LD/Professional/Mary-Ruth-
Coleman-article.pdf
Nicpon, M. F., Allmon, A., Sieck, B., & Stinson, R. D. (2011). Empirical Investigation of Twice-Exceptionality: Where Have We
Been and Where Are We Going? Gifted Child Quarterly, 55(1), 3-17. doi:10.1177/0016986210382575
Sue, J., Linda, B., Betty Roffman, S., & Rich, W. (2008). Bordering on Excellence: A Teaching Tool for Twice-Exceptional
Students. Gifted Child Today, 31(2), 40-46. Retrieved February 21, 2015, from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ789920
Yates, C. M., Berninger, V. W., & Abbott, R. D. (1995). Specific Writing Disabilities in Intellectually Gifted Children. Journal for
the Education of the Gifted, 18(2), 131-155. doi:10.1177/016235329501800203