Honored with the Howard County Board of Education, Friends of Education Award

IDL, Individual Differences in Learning Association Inc., is a parent-led, non-profit organization, promoting awareness, understanding and change in the approach to educating and supporting students. Our purpose is to provide information, training and support for teachers, students, parents and others concerned with the education, health and social and emotional well being of different learners.

Twice exceptional and other different learners exhibit neuro-biological learning differences in the context of high cognitive ability or other specific gifts and talents. These talents may go unrecognized without appropriate accommodations and interventions due to ‘masking’, resulting in average or even under achievement.These differences may result in academic and/or social challenges in a traditional learning environment. Different learners do not conform to the stereotypes for gifted or special education and may also be described as Twice Exceptional, Gifted/Learning Disabled, or Gifted Underachievers. They may be diagnosed with ADHD, Dyslexia, Asperger’s Syndrome, some combination, or they may have no diagnosis at all.Often their strengths are not observed because they are in non-‘academic’ skills making the connection to ‘real-world’ experiences and professions crucial. They are often misunderstood resulting in a tendency for some to think of them as lazy or unmotivated.