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Meeting the Needs of Students Who are Multi-Exceptional

reprinted from 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter
February 2005

On a snowy day in January 2e Newsletter had the opportunity to attend a day-long seminar offered in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. Entitled Meeting the Needs of Students Who are Multi-exceptional, the session was designed to introduce teachers, principals, and other school personnel to the characteristics and needs of gifted children with learning and attention difficulties. (In this seminar the term multi-exceptional was used as a variation of twice-exceptional). The presenter was Wendy Handrich, an education consultant who has years of experience as a special education teacher, principal, district administrator, and university instructor.

The seminar began with a look at common roadblocks for students who are multi-exceptional. These include failing to be identified as having a disability, being misdiagnosed, and being labeled as lazy. She went on to discuss strength-based programming, a topic she introduced with the old saying: Do not try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig! Her point, Handrich explained, was that we offer “singing lessons to pigs” in all levels of education, where students are expected to excel in all areas rather than focus on their strengths and interests.

Handrich went on to discuss educational support strategies, addressing among other things the need for teacher training and the need these children often have for social skills training and assistive technology. She wrapped up the seminar with a look at acceleration for 2e students, discussing the findings from the report A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students. (For information on this report, see the October, 2004, issue of 2e Newsletter.)

Handrich brought a wealth of knowledge to the seminar, offering many observations and anecdotes from her teaching and consulting experience. Here are some examples.

• There’s often a strain between the family of a multi-exceptional student and the school. It exists because the teachers don’t see the giftedness, and they see the child’s average performance as OK. The parents know their child can do much better.
• These kids experience lots of frustration with different tasks, and it confounds teachers. I believe it’s because these children haven’t been given challenges for so long, they don’t know how to deal with them. It’s important to give them challenges in baby steps, to shore them up. The kids need to understand that the work is not more, it’s different; and they must see that it’s worthwhile.
• 2e kids have an awareness of their seemingly contradictory characteristics and capabilities. They know every one of their areas of struggle and don’t often think about their strengths. Many attempt to mask their special needs by avoiding challenges. They act out to disguise their feelings of low self-esteem.
• As a consultant, I get boxes of files on these kids. That means their problems have been documented, but no one is putting it all together and interpreting it correctly.
• Early intervention is essential. When they’re older, they’re into conformity. They don’t want to stand out or ask for help they need. Plus, they have lost some of their spirit after years of not getting what they need.
• Teachers need to listen to those who know these kids best – their families. The family sees their strengths.
• We get hung up on labels because they drive services. We want to know exactly what the diagnosis is. At a meeting a father once said of his son, “He’s not LD, he’s not BD, he’s Cody.” His message was, “Let’s look at this child as a whole.”
• The school years are the only time when we’re expected to be equally developed in all areas. As adults, we gravitate to our areas of strength.

Wendy Handrich is the president of The Learning Curve of Wisconsin, Inc., an educational consulting service at www.learningcurvewi.com. The seminar she presented was one of several offered for educators by Lorman Education Services of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, www.lorman.com.