Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties

Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential

Rich Weinfeld, Linda Barnes-Robinson, Sue Jeweler, Betty Roffman Shevitz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000495577
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The second edition of Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties is an updated and comprehensive must-read for parents, teachers, counselors, and other support professionals of bright kids who face learning challenges every day. This practical book discusses who these students are; how to identify them; what needs to be implemented; best practices, programs, and services; and specific actions to ensure student success. Along with tools and tips, each chapter includes Key Points, a new feature that will help focus and facilitate next steps and desired outcomes and follow-up for parents and teachers. The new edition includes a look at current definitions of twice-exceptional students, updated research findings and identification methods, a detailed description of the laws and policies impacting this population, what works and what doesn't work, model schools, Response to Intervention, Understanding by Design, comprehensive assessments, social-emotional principles, and new assistive technology. Featured in The Fresno Bee

1

WHO ARE THESE KIDS?

DOI:10.4324/9781003237983-2

Some kids struggle. Their backgrounds, socioeconomic conditions, strengths and needs, abilities and disabilities, and their journey through life may vary, but they all struggle with learning. Some, as the following vignettes show, win the struggle and become successful individuals who make extraordinary contributions to the world.

He was from an upper middle class family. His mother was musically inclined and his father was an engineer. He was a very quiet child who did not speak until age 3. He hated school and disliked authority. He did poorly with rote learning. His teachers said he was a slow learner who would never amount to anything. Later, he became interested in science, math, and electrical engineering, but failed the exam for entry into an engineering program. Because of his interest in abstract and mathematical thought, he thought about becoming a teacher. However, he believed he lacked imagination and practical ability. His name was Albert Einstein, the famous mathematician and physics genius.

She came from a socially prominent family. Her father was an alcoholic and she lived with her maternal grandparents. She had little affection for her mother who called her “Granny” because of her appearance. She was sickly, bedridden, hospitalized often, and wore a back brace due to a spinal defect. She bit her nails, had pho-bias, was shy, felt rejected and ugly, craved praise and attention, was insecure, and had deep feelings of inadequacy. A daydreamer, she often preferred to be isolated. After many years in school, she began to exhibit leadership qualities. She proved to be altruistic and wanted to help the elderly and poor. Her name was Eleanor Roosevelt, the famous reformer, humanitarian, and philanthropist.

He was the youngest of eight children and was of Cherokee descent. His father was a successful rancher and banker. His parents wanted him to be a minister, but he wanted to perform in a circus. He was well-coordinated, but careless in his personal hygiene. Although he excelled in history and social studies, he received poor grades in school, did not complete his work, and was expelled. His special skills included a sense of humor and recitation. His name was Will Rogers, the famous entertainer, orator, and nominee for President of the United States.

She came from a low-income family. She had two sisters; her mother was a domestic worker and her father was a minister. She was overweight, and later developed multiple sclerosis. Although a very quiet child, she possessed a sense of humor, was charismatic, eloquent, humble, and a leader. Ambitious and hardworking, her name was Barbara Jordan, the famous Congresswoman and orator.

He came from a middle class family of seven children. His father was a carpenter. He had an enlarged head at birth and was not able to talk until he was almost 4 years old. He was enrolled in school 2 years late due to scarlet fever and respiratory infections. He lost his hearing and had a high-pitched voice. His attendance in school was poor. He was stubborn, aloof, shy, self-centered, and disengaged with the learning process, and he did not seem to care about school. One teacher said that his brains were addled, even though he had an excellent memory, read well, displayed perseverance, asked questions, and was a good problem solver. He liked to build things and wanted to earn money. His name was Thomas Edison, the famous inventor.

Born to an undistinguished family, he moved often with his father, sister, and brother. His mother died when he was small and his father, a farmer, remarried. He was once kicked in the head by a horse and thought dead. He had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disease that affects connective tissues, including those around the heart, skeleton, and nervous system. He briefly attended school and was considered lazy. He excelled at sports, was an avid reader, and liked practical jokes. He was a good debater and thinker and also liked to argue. Interested in sales, he wanted to open his own business. His name was Abraham Lincoln, the former President of the United States.

She was a fatherless child whose mother struggled financially. Suffering from dyslexia, she could not read, write, or do mathematical problems. Teachers described her as a class clown. She left school at age 16. Her name is Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere—Cher—the famous entertainer.

His teachers viewed him as bright, but inattentive and lazy. He was viewed by some of his classmates as crazy or “retarded.” Each day, in elementary school, as his turn to read aloud approached, he went to the bathroom, where he got sick to his stomach and wished he would die. Unfortunately, when he returned to the room, it was always still his turn to read aloud. In sixth grade, when assigned a composition, he dictated an outstanding composition to his mother, because his poor handwriting and spelling interfered with his work production. He was accused of plagiarism, and became so disconsolate he dropped out of school for a time. In college, the student met with each of his professors prior to each semester. He described to them his love of literature and his passion for writing. He also described his needs to take periodic breaks during class due to his Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), to receive copies of a peer’s notes, to do all major writing on the word processor due to his written language disability, and to have books on tape because he read on a seventh-grade level. The professors invariably agreed to work closely with him. Jonathan Mooney graduated from Brown University with honors and a 4.0 average. Now an inspirational speaker and author, he shares his experiences and the positive impact of appropriate adaptations and accommodations in his book, Learning Outside the Lines (Mooney & Cole, 2000).

Her previous teacher advised Mary’s new teacher that her writing was terrible. It contained little or no punctuation, run on sentences, and few capital letters. But the new teacher took the time to actually read her writing. He was struck by the creativity it revealed. He pulled Mary aside and told her to keep on writing and not to worry about the mechanics, but just focus on her wonderful ideas. Today, at 40 years old, Mary is a special education teacher with a master’s degree in education. She graduated magna cum laude from college with a degree in philosophy and literature; became an attorney working in criminal defense, civil rights, and legal assistance for those with mental illness; and returned to the classroom as an educator to support middle school students with challenges. The child, Mary White, whose teacher said that she could not write received the Hart Crane Memorial Award for her poetry (Hardy, 2010).

These are profiles of people who were smart and overcame their learning difficulties. Think about all of our kids sitting in classrooms today who are smart, but struggle in school. Their school experiences may mirror those profiled above. Unfortunately, they may not have the resilience to succeed despite their circumstances.

Imagine the impact if all of these kids were given the tools that could ease their struggle and the contributions they could make if they were given strategies to succeed.

POPULATION

So who are these students and what characteristics can we look for to identify them? Bright students who are not reaching their potential present themselves in different ways, depending on what is contributing to their lack of achievement. Sometimes their difficulty in school is due to a documented learning disability. Sometimes it may be due to a health impairment such as ADHD. At other times, they may be students with neurological differences, such as autism spectrum disorder, that provide challenges to their learning. In addition to the more typical learning disabilities like spelling and writing difficulties, organization, word retrieval, and processing speed, some students struggle with nonverbal learning disabilities, those characterized by problems in visual-spatial, organizational, tactile-perceptual, and psychomotor skills (see Table 1) that adversely affect their academic performance with rigorous instruction.

Table 1 Definitions Related to Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Term	Definition
visual-spatial	learning by seeing (e.g., diagrams, maps, graphs, facial expressions, and body language)
organization	bringing order to self, place, and materials
tactile-perceptual	learning through sensory input
psychomotor	muscular activity directly related to mental processes

Despite their outstanding abilities, smart students with learning difficulties often have problems with the physical production of schoolwork, and with the written output, organization, memory, and reading school requires. At other times, these kids seem to be average students because their brightness and their learning difficulties are masking one another. There are also students who, despite a lack of any documented disability, are underachieving or not performing to their potential. These students are often the most difficult to understand and reach because they do not fall into a neat category with specific instructional skills that can be addressed. Understanding who these students are, the struggles they face, how to best address their needs, and the roles parents and educators play in their lives is essential if smart kids with learning problems are to develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

As you become actively involved in helping your child succeed, it is important for you to have a common understanding of the definitions and terms used in both the field of gifted education and the realm of special education. The following definitions will help facilitate communication between yourself and school personnel and clarify what groups of students we are referring to in this book. This knowledge will contribute to your effectiveness and efficiency in advocating for appropriate programming and identification decisions for your child.

Definition of Gifted and Talented Students

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, 2008a) defined gifted and talented students in its position statement, “Redefining Giftedness for a New Century: Shifting the Paradigm” as:

Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting, dance, sports).

The development of ability or talent is a lifelong process. It can be evident in young children as exceptional performance on tests and/or other measures of ability or as a rapid rate of learning, compared to other students of the same age, or in actual achievement in a domain. As individuals mature through childhood to adolescence, however, achievement and high levels of motivation in the domain become the primary characteristics of their giftedness. Various factors can either enhance or inhibit the development and expression of abilities. (para. 4–5)

Federal education policy, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001), defines gifted and talented students as

students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided...