Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2e full grade acceleration

Hi,
I'm the mother of a 9 year old boy who is 2E in that he has attention and written expression disorders. His attention problem is inattentive and it has not responded to medication. He seems to be bored and fantasizing when he should be listening. He is not a behavioral problem. He makes friends easily, too. He has an IEP to address his handwriting and attention and receives good services for these needs. He has a scribe and someone assisting him to keep him on task during his classes.

We are seeking to accelerate him to 5th grade next year having completed 3rd. He's not a high achieving student on his own, but with the IEP services we have seen him increase in his overall ability and achievements. His test scores place him in the highly gifted range in verbal comprehension, but low in perceptual reasoning and processing speed. Academically he is across the board in achievement on the tests, from 12th grade scores in comprehension, to 8th grade in reading, to 5th grade in math, to 2nd grade in handwritten written expression.

We need some links and resources to support 2E acceleration. Our school district has never done one before, but they are willing to explore this option for our son.

Also, I'd like to hear from some people who have 2E kids who have successfully accelerated. I've been watching Trinity's posts about her son's experiences and also am interested in seeing what happens with WillaGayle's Mite. Who else has accelerated or is attempting it?

Gwen

hey, this could be the blind leading the blind!! chuckle.

We just had a meeting today re: acceleration. It still hasn't been decided. I think if we push the point we will get it. We just haven't found that ONE pro-argument to propel us over everyone's fears.

Our school and district has never done it before with a typical gifted kid, trying it with a 2E/multiE is giving everyone the willies, but I have to say they've been pretty open to exploring it with us. So....

One thing I would hesitate to recommend is the IAS (Iowa Acceleration Scale), if your child has achievement issues. If he underachieves, it will hurt him in the scoring process. Mite is achieving pretty well now, but when we did the scale he was not.

Mite, too, is responding quite well to the IEP services, when they are implemented consistantly. He is now maintaining a B+ in language arts, an A+ in science and an A+ in math, with Bs in the other subjects, including P.E. The P.E. grade is highly inflated, imo, given that the Mite can't do most of the tasks demanded of him without several prompts and demonstrations and even then he's significantly different from his peers' abilities. Same thing for art. For goodness sake he has trouble in art. If they would make it art history instead of all that fine motor blech he'd just leap, but his art projects are so sadly different from his peers'. He is always so disappointed with his results and they won't service him in art.

Anyhow, I do need some good links, too, to ideas on how to do acceleration with 2E. That is the one thing that is throwing them off.

One thing I do say quite often in our IEP meetings and any other school interactions, "Don't limit Mite to his disabilities."

I offered my comments about the IAS on another thread, but thought I'd repeat my thoughts here. The IAS is a great tool, IMHO, for facilitating the discussion necessary between parents, teachers, administrators and even the student (when age appropriate) regarding acceleration. I think that if you use it as intended, to view ALL the components necessary for a successful grade skip, then it can be very helpful regardless of a child's weaker areas or 2E considerations.

In fact, I think that in cases like this, the IAS could actually lead the team to a discussion of how to meet those needs, in light of all the other components pointing to grade acceleration being appropriate. What better way to get people to recognize that there is only one thing holding the child back (acheivement), and then facilitate a discussion of how to remediate that need? Wouldn't scoring well on everything else on the IAS indicate that the ONE area of need should be addressed?
At least, that's how I see the IAS being used.

If you have interest in using the IAS and want to know more about it, check out this article on Hoagie's Page:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/iowa_accel_scale.htm

And if you'd like to speak directly to a co-author, I'll bet you could reach one at the Belin-Blank Center:
http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/bbc/staff.asp

Both Susan Assouline and Nicholas Colangelo work at the center.

There is a wonderful book, Uniquely Gifted, that is a compilation of essays in support of "provide appropriate challenge to the strengths, and some suppport for the weaknesses" school to though. It's towards the end of the page here:

http://www.amazon.com/Hoagies-Twice-Exceptional-Gifted/lm/UFI3WIS4U6F2

I'm not so sure that the written expression part is really a disorder, as much as a normal difficulty of giftedness which "goes away" once touch typing comes in. My son really looked like he "couldn't write" particularly to timed prompts, until the touch typing clicked at age 9. (I'd been patiently bribing him to do some extra work on it since age 7, and they teach it at his school.

Another wonderful book to give insight into his understanding of the writing process is
6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide (Grades 3 and Up) by Ruth Culham (Paperback - Jan 2003)

It's so easy, and worth it, to read this book and read parts to him, and see if he can "think" about writing, or "talk" about writing. He may be quite advanced, as long as you don't ask him to "think" while "printing."

Is my son having organizational troubles in his new placement? sure. Is he getting the extra support he needs? sure. Is it better than if we had kept doing what we were doing? I'm not all-knowing, but I have every confidence that he is getting 100 times more out of this year than he would have without the skip/school change. It seems to me that some kids (ours) need to approach school in a very individualised way, meeting their needs in all their variety.

At the least, you can go sit in on the target classroom and ask yourself, could he do this?

Best Wishes, and keep us up to date,
Trinity

I've started reading 6+1 with Mite. He's fascinated with it. I find him looking up examples of ideation and voice in his favorite books now. I'm hoping he will spurt when we start working more intensely in our "summer homeschool" program in July.

I do feel he can do 5th grade work with very little difficulty intellectually. With the excellent additions to his IEP in the 1:1 indenpendent aide, keyboarding instruction and OT services, I really think he'll excel in a more challenging classroom setting.

Now the principal says if we skip it has to be to the gifted cluster. Again, there are not any "identified" gifted kids in the clusters. Rather it is a high achievement cluster. At this point, I'm not worried about Mite being the highest achiever. I know he'll come into his own once he learns that he can learn. Then he will achieve. Right now I just want him challenged. Everything I have read has pretty much indicated that rigorous academics are the only way to help a gifted child realize potential. So far, Mite is able to spend way too much time in his "head" and not in the present. He needs rigor to learn to attend to the present, imo. It is one step towards realization of the giftedness, imo.

Now don't ask me what I think tomorrow:^)

Yippee!
That's terrific.
I think that with accomidations, the Gifted Cluster will be the right place for Mite! It may mess with his head, being smarter and also less able than the other kids, but since you know what is going on, you will be able to help him with it.

Big Smiles,
Trinity

Trin-
THEY ARE WAIVERING!!! The principal is starting to fall back on, "we can accomodate him in the 4th grade high cluster". ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!

What are some resources that show this can work for a 2E? I really think it is that part that is scaring everybody. I feel if introduced to proper rigor, Mite will shed some of the maladaptive attentiveness and show us who he really is.

Oh. This is stressing me today. he needs the skip. I thought he had the skip. Now it looks like they are spinning their wheels and him with 'em! sigh.

oh bother bother bother....breathe breathe breathe

WG -
What????
Are they saying he doesn't need the accomidation or the skip or what?

Have you tried the old - we will put in writing that we believe such and such to be the best placement for Mite?

Send an email to Webmistress at Hogiesgifted.org and ask for any references to 2E gradeskips. Mite is who he is who he is!
T

spelling error -

www.hoagiesgifted.org

t

I have hoagiesgifted.org on my speed favorites!!! The Webmistress is helpful? kewl!!

It is the acceleration that seemed so definitely that he's waffling on. The accomodations are on the IEP and most are already being implemented.

Well I'm glad that the accomodations are in place! WHeew!

As for the skip, I'm hoping that it becomes obvious that he needs it now that the accomidations are in place. Still - folks worry!

I'm hoping you can stop the waffling!

Trin

as I mentioned in the other post, his standardized test scores went up more than 3 standard deviations in math and about 1.5 in reading (if my math is correct:^), JUST because an aide sat with him during the test and redirected him to task when his mind wandered off or he'd start staring out in space.

That's why I'm ready for him to take the SCAT if we can get accomodations.

Wow Willa Gayle!
That is quite a jump. Wow! Does he mind being redirected? I am sure that as he gets older and the work is at his readiness level, he will be able to do this himself. I've been known to set my timer on my watch for 5 minute increments to get through my dullest jobs.
Big Smile,
Trinity

actually it is two standard deviations in reading, but bear in mind that last time he was undiagnosed and had no accomodations. This is just on that particular test. We've not done any other achievement tests since last year.

He likes having his aide and going to the resource room. he says it is much less quiet and that it's necessary to have her redirect.

I think he'll grow out of the need, too. he needs to learn to attend after spending 4 years in public ed inside his imagination.

We are working on that.

Followup to the acceleration, while a couple of months ago we had been led to be lieve it would happen, today we were informed it won't, not even a subject acceleration.

Since there were other kids in the class who scored higher on this achievement test, they feel he's in a "good fit" to stay with his age group peers.

I can pound my head into a wall if there was one sturdy enough to handle the level of my frustration.

Just because those other kids acheived higher, does NOT mean they are gifted!!! Just because he scored lower does NOT mean hes typical.

Frankly, if you interpolate his scores to above grade level in reading it was 50%ile 8th grade. Math was 50%ile 6th grade.

Those were HUGE gains given he's not been EXPOSED to those levels of math and reading in the classroom.

It makes me sick that they are patting themselves on the back over his gains and they have no clue that what it really means is he's capable of learning very rapidly and they are still going to give it to him drip by tedious drip.

blech.
shudder.
breathe breathe breathe