Critical Issues in the Identification of Gifted Students With Co-Existing Disabilities

Abstract

Federal law ensures all students with disabilities the right to a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). However, current policies governing a student’s eligibility for services may contribute to the underidentification of gifted children with co-existing disabilities—the Twice-Exceptional. The emphasis on below-grade-level (or lower) performance, without regard to ability or potential weaknesses, misses twice-exceptional students. Those who perform at grade level, by using advanced conceptual abilities and hard work to compensate, may still require interventions and accommodations to manage increasing educational demands. Otherwise, college and even high school graduation may be out of reach. This article reviews changing laws and policies, explores case studies of twice-exceptional students missed, and examines the diagnosis of twice-exceptionality through comprehensive assessment. Appropriate best practices for the identification of twice-exceptional learners, maintenance of their civil rights, and provision of FAPE are offered for educators, parents, advocates, and legislators as federal, state, and district laws/policies evolve.

Best practices in gifted identification and assessment: Lessons from the WISC‐V

“…Children served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) make up 13% of American students (Peters, Gentry, Whiting, & McBee, 2019). Twice exceptional students often have dramatic discrepancies between their strengths and weaknesses (Silverman, 2013), which make their Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) scores uninterpretable (Flanagan & Kaufman, 2004), and often prevent them from being eligible for gifted services (Gilman et al, 2013). The examiner must separate the indicators of giftedness from the symptoms of disability to facilitate placement in gifted programs and acquire services for the child's disabilities.…”

High ability students with coexisting disabilities: Implications for school psychological practice

“…By examining rates of identified gifted SLD, gifted, and SLD profiles based on various specified identification criteria, she found that solely using a discrepancy model (1.5 SD s) would overidentify gifted SLD, a finding supported by the psychometric holes present in the discrepancy model because of measurement error and regression to the mean (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). Yet, Maddocks (2018) further noted the importance of discrepancy models in identifying gifted students with learning disabilities (Gilman et al, 2013) because it is the best way to recognize individual areas of talent and disability. For example, a student with a Verbal Comprehension Index score of 135 whose reading scores vary from 95 to 100 may be reading within an “average” level but is certainly not performing academically as one might expect with verbal skills greater than two standard deviations above the mean.…”

Twice Exceptional Students: Gifts and Talents, the Performing Arts, and Juvenile Delinquency

“…Twice exceptional students form a notable group of students in America's schools. Although there has not been any systematic evaluation of the prevalence of 2e, there are some preliminary estimates and a general consensus that 2e students are underidentified (Gilman et al., 2013). Thus, only using intellectual giftedness and learning disabilities as the bases of 2e status, it has been estimated that there are about 360,000–385,000 students who are 2e (National Education Association, 2006).…”

“…Yet, importantly, there is no single definition of 2e status. On the contrary, there is a lot of discussion in the literature with regard to how this status should be defined (Gilman et al., 2013; McCoach, Kehle, Bray, & Siegle, 2001). One working definition has reached substantial consensus, among twenty‐six organizations that support the research and educational needs of 2e students (Baldwin, Baum, Pereles, & Hughes, 2015): “Twice exceptional individuals evidence exceptional ability and disability, which results in a unique set of circumstances.…”