Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2E kids in full time Gifted Education

I am filling out the paperwork to enroll DD10 in our district's PEGS program (Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students). DD10 is 2E with high functioning autism, convergence insufficiency, and some motor skill delays. She is extremely bright and is currently in a pull out program that meets twice a week for 2 hours. This program is not nearly challenging enough for her. I was wondering if anyone had experience with a 2E kid in a full time gifted program? Would you be willing to share your experiences with me? How well did the school handle their particular learning issue? Did you get adequate support? Was the material challenging or too advanced? I want DD10 to participate in the program, I am just worried about management of her IEP and not getting the services she needs. We just started her IEP at her current school, and I am already noticing major flaws in implementation of services. She is currently getting services for pragmatic language, social skills, behavior, and organizational skills. I don't want to overwhelm her. Am I worrying too much about this or not enough?

Following.. you and I are kind of in the same boat :-(

My DS15 (sophmore in H.S.) was in 3 years of a full time gifted program 4-6th grade. At the time he was not diagnosed as 2E, I had him tested last summer. So at the time school & I were not aware of his struggles even though there were signs. My son struggles with content creations (particularly with writing), has anxiety disorder and once tested I realized his low average processing speed & working memory have probably caused him struggles at school since 4th grade.

My DS's 4th & 5th grade teachers were very good and the program worked out fairly well for him. One sign that should have told me something was day one of 4th grade when the teacher asked the kids to write an essay describing themselves, my son wrote 2 sentences while most other kids wrote 1-2 pages. Once he warmed up to the teacher and class though things got better. Teacher was concerned he had been poorly placed but by the end of the year was saying things to me like 'he reminds me a lot like my own child' and 'he is really a very bright student'. Some of the assignments he did great with like math and others he struggled with more. In general context wasn't a problem if anything the content was still easy.

Sixth grade was a disaster on the other hand. One of the problems I had (he wasn't alone) with our program was it wasn't just for gifted kids, it was also for "high performing" or in other words motivated students. There were insane amounts of homework for 6th graders. My son had more homework than his sister did in H.S. This 6th grade teacher expected these students to have a very high level of executive functioning. So while my son was defiantly "gifted" enough to handle the material in the class, he was slow to get the already crazy amount of homework done, unable to manage and organize due dates. Didn't work well in groups and this class was all about doing LOTS of group work. One of the reasons for the large amount of homework was class time was spent primarily on group discussions, groups projects. Anything that might be normally seatwork was sent home as homework. In February after missing some school for illness my son started having anxiety attacks IN CLASS. Was not fun.. He was already well past grade level, so one way we managed him anxiety was to get the teacher to scale back his expectations from my DS. The principal of the elementary didn't handle it well. I have a few stories where I just took my son out of school for the rest of the day.

Probably should have gotten full testing at that stage but I didn't.. we worked on his anxiety problems and hoped that junior high the next year would help. It did but since we didn't solve all of the underlying issues they got worse again as a freshman in H.S.

Not sure how much of this is useful. Don't mean to scare you, I do think it can work if you have a good relationship with the teacher & resource teacher. And it helps if you go into it knowing there will be bumps along the way.

kitkat24, our ds wa not enrolled in a full-time gifted program at the same age, but we did consider the full suite of programs in our district - full-time HG vs regular classroom vs charter/etc vs private, and chose schools based on which school we felt would provide the best support in terms of supporting us as parents - I'll explain in a minute.


I think that you'll find the answers to this question are going to vary down to individual schools, whether they are gifted schools or not. So much is dependent upon school staff when it comes to implementing services and following accommodations under an IEP. The first school our ds was in was *tough* in terms of having a culture of not accepting that ds could be either exceptionally bright or challenged in a way that needed remediation and accommodations. We advocated until we turned blue and we got him an IEP - and then found we were spending all of our time at odds with the school because his IEP services weren't being implemented. The thing is - the school had a very cool curriculum that should have worked (in theory) for an HG child, but it wasn't a school culture that was open to kids who had struggles. Is that going to be true of all HG/etc schools? Absolutely not! Neither is every neighborhood school going to be a best-choice solution for kids with LDs. It just all depends on the individual school - school staff and school culture.

This is something I feel really strongly about - because it was the area I feel our ds often lost out on, and also the area that was the most helpful for ds. He needed to be educated at the level he was intellectually capable of being at. He was bored to tears when in classes listening to discussions that weren't at his level, weren't deep, and marched along slowly. And that's what was often happening in the classes where he was strong. In the classes where he needed help (written expression in his case) - he responded *the best* to remediation - when it was at an appropriate intellectual level. I would not keep a child out of a gifted program simply because they are 2e. I *would* keep them out if I felt school would be a struggle for advocacy for the 2nd e or he/she wouldn't get help with their 2nd e, but I wouldn't make the decision out of worry that the work would be too difficult. The work will be difficult in their area of challenge no matter what the level - and you need to give them the write level of intellectual input to make it interesting enough to be meaningful, and then progress happens in working on LD challenges.


The best thing you can do now is to network - ask as many parents as you can find who have experience with IEPs at this school. Do you have a local parents advocates group? Ask them what they know of the school and services there etc.



I can't answer for your dd, but the more support and services my ds received, the better life went all around - he needed the support. In the early years it can often seem like the remediation takes over and there's little left to put toward strengths, but all those gains that are being made now will most likely help your dd be able to leave services behind as she makes gains and moves on into high school and then on and beyond into becoming a successful capable adult.

I'd also add - help her now with as much as you can - because it's going to be tough to predict what will happen as she enters the teen years - some of the kids with challenges I've known have been more reluctant to try additional therapies/etc as they get older. OTOH, some kids like my ds also become open to therapies etc as they become older and more aware. There's just no way to know at 10 how that will all work out. I'd say all along, do everything you can in the moment. You won't have to look back and wish, hey, why didn't I do that then.

Best wishes,

polarbear