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Individual Differences
in Learning Association, Inc.
Professional
Development Materials
Walking the Path
with the Twice Exceptional Learner:
Understanding the Paradox of Exceptional
Strengths and Weaknesses
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The following is a recent article in the Baltimore Sun about
our efforts to provide professional development materials for educational
professionals in the Howard County Public Schools. We have been collaborating with the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) since
2003 (see our History under FAQs on this website). Trish
Budd and Meg Mekelburg were instrumental in
starting this effort, along with members of the HCPSS administration
including Penny Zimring, Emily Hurd, Ellen Hill, Patty Daley Ellen Jensen and Tom
Payne (among others initially). Through the generosity of a Horizon Foundation CHIP
grant and financial support
from HCPSS, we have been able to create a 30 page booklet, 4 discs
including 2 hours of video interviews, a 10 minute overview and a disc
filled with articles, resources, handouts and power point presentations for
use in training school-based facilitators of the program. This year
we are thrilled to have funding through the Columbia
Foundation as well
as some funding from HCPSS to continue our efforts collaborating with the
public schools to meet the needs of twice-exceptional students. If you are
interested in learning more or donating time, money, services to our
program, please contact kboser@gifteddifferentlearners.org.
Baltimore Sun/Howard County
Friday,
September 28, 2007
Kids who don't fit mold
Nonprofit
group wants schools to recognize, better educate 'twice-exceptional'
children
In Columbia,
Katharina Boser (left) of Ellicott
City and Debbie Bleakney (center) and Melissa
Kay, both of Columbia, talk
about the Individual Differences in Learning Association, a nonprofit
founded six years ago, and a project by the association to develop
educational materials for "twice-exceptional" children. (Sun photo by Amy Davis / September 25, 2007)
Dr. Boser's son, Alex, started reading at an early age and
was devouring Harry Potter books by the time he was 4.
"There really wasn't a sign of a problem except that this kid just
wanted to read all the time," said his mother, Katharina Boser.
But the youngster, now 10, has been diagnosed with
attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder
(ADHD). He gets anxious in
school, is sensitive to criticism and has trouble memorizing facts, Boser
said. Even though he is in a Gifted-and-Talented math class at his Ellicott
City elementary school, he also has an individualized
education program (IEP) for help
with his learning disabilities.
Alex is what is now known as
"twice exceptional" -- a bright child who has a learning
disability. Until recently, there was no name for these kinds of students,
and certainly no strategy for educating them. But that
is starting to change, thanks in large part to Boser and her work with a
local nonprofit group called Individual Differences in Learning
Association, or IDL. The group, founded six years ago, is working to help
the school system recognize and educate such children.
Boser and other members of IDL spent most of the summer in the county's
Television and Media Production studio in the Applications and Research Laboratory
on Route 108, interviewing students, teachers, parents and experts to
create a two-hour video on twice-exceptional learners.
The video was created through a collaboration
between the school system and IDL. Penny Zimring,
instructional facilitator for the county's Gifted and Talented Education
Program, is working closely with IDL, as is Patricia Daley, Ellen Hill and Emily Hurd, representing the special-education
side.
Boser, who has a doctorate in cognitive psychology, was in charge of
production and did most of the research for the video. Helping her and
other IDL members were high school students, including Stefanie
Seo and Hiroko Nishimura of Atholton,
Liza Gipsov and Eric
Lin of River Hill High and Nolan Walter of Glenelg.
Zimring described Boser's
effort as "Herculean," and said the group is a valuable partner
to the school system, one that is doing much of the legwork necessary to
get school officials up to speed on the issue of twice-exceptional students
-- also sometimes known as GTLD, or gifted and talented/learning disabled.
"It is really an amazing compilation of materials that will enable
schools to use them in different and flexible formats," said Zimring.
IDL was founded about six years ago by Trish Budd, Meg Mekelburg and Laurie Rush, all parents of children who
are "different learners." The group, which is truly local
to Howard County and not
simply a chapter of a national organization, incorporated as a nonprofit
organization in 2004. It has about 500 members.
Budd, whose son, Owen, was diagnosed with ADHD at
age 5, had co-founded a support group for people coping with learning
disabilities in her native Australia. But she said the goal for IDL is to focus on both the
disability and the talent.
"You can't just look at the difficulties," she said. "You
have to look at their skills and talents or you're only looking at part of
the child."
Owen, a student at the University of Montana, is
incredibly bright and creative, a person who "goes 120 percent into
everything," Budd said. But he likes to teach
himself and doesn't do well when he is forced to sit and absorb
information. When her son was in middle school, Budd had few places to turn
for advice about making sure Owen got the best education possible.
But thanks to her efforts, other parents can look
to IDL.
IDL serves as a support group and resource for parents and holds regular
meetings with speakers. But its more ambitious
goal is to teach school officials in Howard County -- and
maybe someday in other places -- how to recognize and work with students
who are twice exceptional.
"That's what we're all about -- collecting this research," said
Boser. "We want to educate schools about kids that just don't fit the
mold."
The
Individual Differences in Learning Association has developed this book and
two-hour video on understanding and recognizing
"twice-exceptional" learners, who are bright children but who
have learning disabilities. (Sun
photo by Amy Davis / September 25, 2007)
Boser said the accommodations don't have to be
onerous or complicated. Sometimes a student, even one without an official
diagnosis such as dyslexia or ADHD, simply needs more time, or needs to
hear an assignment, instead of only seeing it on a chalkboard, she said.
IDL member Melissa Kay said many teachers are "not trained to see
issues and work on them."
IDL has been tackling that problem systematically.
For about three years, members of IDL put together workshops of experts and
of twice-exceptional students who told of their classroom struggles.
Schools would send a team consisting of a Gifted and Talented Program
teacher, a special-education teacher and a general teacher, with the idea
that those professionals would then pass along the information to other
teachers.
"As a result of those workshops, teachers went back
and looked for students with those characteristics and see what they could
do to help," said Zimring.
However, those workshops were time-consuming for everyone involved, so IDL
began work on the video. The group also created a 32-page companion book that
teachers can keep, as well as a PowerPoint presentation for officials to
take back to their schools.
The video and books were funded with a grant of
about $20,000 from the Horizon Foundation, a sum that covered production
costs, a guest speaker and a portion of the time that Boser spent on the project.
The video is in 16 segments, each 10 to 15 minutes
long, with titles such as "Understanding the Myth of Laziness"
and "Collaboration and Communication." The video begins with a
fable, illustrated with still photos from Centennial High grad Julie Kuhn, a photography student at Howard Community
College.
The story is of a woman who carries water in two pots, one that is cracked
and one that is not. The unbroken pot always has a full supply of water
when she reaches her destination, but the cracked pot is half-empty.
However, the cracked pot has been watering the path as she walks, creating
a row of colorful flowers. The idea is to value the journey that
twice-exceptional students take.
Several schools are testing the video, said Zimring.
Eventually, if all goes according to plan, every school in the county will
use it.
"We're very excited about continuing to work with IDL," she said.
For her part, Boser is eager to see the videos start to make a difference
in the classrooms.
"Now what we really need to do is see it happen in the schools,"
she said.
Information
about the Individual Differences in Learning Association
or to contact the organization: kboser @gifteddifferentlearners.org.
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