Recognizing Gifted Children With Learning Disabilities

1. In taking the family history, ask if there were any indicators of giftedness such as IQ scores or having been identified for gifted programs. Were there learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, AD/HD. visual, auditory or sensory-motor impairments in the family history?

2. Was there any birth trauma, e.g., excessively long labor, difficulty getting an unusually large head through the birth canal, cord wrapped around any part of the child's body, lack of oxygen? Lack of oxygen and hyperoxygenation have been hypothesized as possible factors in savant-like abilities combined with disabilities.

3. Did the child have colic? early onset of otitis media (before 8 months)? chronic otitis media (more than 9 bouts in first three years)? This combination of factors has been found in bright children with auditory processing problems or attentional deficits.

4. Were the child's developmental milestones achieved at an advanced rate? When giving parents a list of developmental milestones, be sure to give them sets for older children as well, so that advancement can be documented. Note intellectual milestones, such as early receptive language, early speech, advanced vocabulary, early reading.

5. Is the child's development significantly delayed from siblings in any areas'

6. Are there marked discrepancies between the child s abilities in different areas? For example (a) apparently bright but not learning to read in first grade; (b) reads well, but refuses to turn in written work; (c) verbally advanced, but hates puzzles; (d) athletically competent but can't ride a bicycle; (e) develops language late, but is excellent at mathematical concepts. (f) read early, but can't cut, color or draw well; etc.

7. Does the child excel in some areas and avoid others? Are the parents concerned about lack of social skills, child's "spaciness", excessive clumsiness, inability to calculate, slow response time, poor motor skills, or child's getting lost easily?

8. Have you observed that the child seems more mature than other children or more curious about medical procedures, asking sophisticated questions? Does the child have an advanced vocabulary, use complex sentence structure, and seem to have a complicated thought process?

9. Is the child very deliberate and slow in responding to questions, but gives very thoughtful answers?

10. Is the child easily over stimulated, hypersensitive to sound, light or touch, or intense?

11. High intelligence can complicate diagnosis. Many gifted children have learned to compensate so well for areas of weakness that they may appear average when they are really struggling. It is important to compare the child's weaknesses to his or her strengths and see if the discrepancies are significant, rather than to compare only with norms for average children.

If any of these symptoms apply it would be helpful to have the child diagnosed for giftedness or the combination of giftedness and learning disabilities. The Gifted Development Center (303) 837-8378 can provide inexpensive e assessment as we are a field placement site for the Professional School of Psychology at The University of Denver. We ha- e materials on giftedness and various types of learning disabilities that can be useful for modifying a child's school program.