This article, from the ERIC Database, is divided into four parts.
- Difficulties Identifying Children with Dual Exceptionalities (Children who are gifted and also have a disability)
- Characteristics of Gifted Children Who Have an Additional Exceptionalities (Visual impairment, physical disabilities, hearing impairments, or learning disabilities.
- Lists of Characteristics Similar in Giftedness and ADHD (Includes a list of questions to ask that help distinguish between the two.)
- List of References
ERIC EC Digest #E574
Author: Colleen Willard-Holt
May 1999
Part II
The following lists are intended to assist parents and teachers in recognizing intellectual giftedness in the presence of a disability.
Gifted Students with Visual Impairment
- Fast rate of learning
- Superior memory
- Superior verbal communication skills and vocabulary
- advanced problem-solving skills
- Creative production or thought that may progress more slowly than sighted students in some academic areas
- Ease in learning Braille
- Great persistence
- Motivation to know
- Sometimes slower rate of cognitive development than sighted students
- excellent ability to concentrate
Gifted Students with Physical Disabilities
- Development of compensatory skills
- Creativity in finding alternate ways of communicating and accomplishing tasks
- Impressive store of knowledge
- Advanced academic skills
- Superior memory
- Exceptional problem-solving skills
- Rapid grasp of ideas
- Ability to set and strive for long-term goals
- Greater maturity than age mates
- Good sense of humor
- Persistence, patience
- Motivation to achieve
- Curiosity, insight
- Self-criticism and perfectionism
- Cognitive development that may not be based on direct experience
- Possible difficulty with abstractions
- Possible limited achievement due to pace of work
(Cline, 1999; Whitmore & Maker, 1985; Willard-Holt, 1994)
Gifted Students with Hearing Impairments
- Development of speech-reading skills without instruction
- Early reading ability
- Excellent memory
- Ability to function in the regular school setting
- Rapid grasp of ideas
- High reasoning ability
- Superior performance in school
- Wide range of interests
- Nontraditional ways of getting information
- Use of problem-solving skills in everyday situations
- Possibly on grade level
- Delays in concept attainment
- Self starters
- Good sense of humor
- Enjoyment of manipulating environment
- Intuition
- Ingenuity in solving problems
- Symbolic language abilities (different symbol system)
(Cline, 1999; Whitmore & Maker, 1985)
Gifted Students with Learning Disabilities
- High abstract reasoning ability
- Good mathematical reasoning ability
- Keen visual memory, spatial skills
- Advanced vocabulary
- Sophisticated sense of humor
- Imaginative and creative
- Insightful
- Exceptional ability in geometry, science, arts, music
- Good problem-finding and -solving skills
- Difficulty with memorization, computation, phonics, and/or spelling
- Distractibility and/or disorganization
- Supersensitivity
- Perfectionism
- Grasp of metaphors, analogies, satire
- Comprehension of complex systems
- Unreasonable self expectations
- Often, failure to complete assignments
- Difficulties with sequential tasks
- Wide variety of interests
(Baum, Owen, & Dixon, 1991; Silverman, 1989)
