“There is no doubt that gifted children can be ADD and ADHD. However, there are also gifted children whose “inappropriate behavior” may be a result of being highly gifted and or intense.”
To schedule an appointment, begin coaching or arrange a free phone consultation email Lynne or call her at 310-828-7121
“Giftedness can be formally defined using a valid IQ test, but the limit of 2% that is generally used is an arbitrary one. Although some very intelligent people with, for example, dyslexia or an extreme fear of failure do not score well in tests, they do have the same cognitive ability as gifted people who do score well in an IQ test.”
2e Gifted
Twice Exceptional:
ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia & More
Life is your art.
An open, aware heart is your camera.
A oneness with your world is your film.
Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum.
Ansel Adams
What is twice-exceptionality?
Very simply, giftedness does not immunize a person against any other problems. A twice- (or multiply-) exceptional person displays both & giftedness and one or more of the following:
* learning disability (e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, nonverbal learning disability)
* language-based learning disability (e.g., expressive or receptive language disorders)
* autism-spectrum disorders (e.g. Asperger’s Syndrome)
* other cognitive disorders (e.g. ADHD, executive functioning disorders, sensory processing disorders, apraxia)
* other psychological disorders (e.g. anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, phobias)
* physical disorders (e.g. visual or hearing impairment, orthopedic impairment, medical disorders)
Their strengths are the key to success for twice-exceptional.
They thrive on intellectual challenges in their areas of interest and ability. Many 2e do best when given work that engages multiple senses and offers opportunities for hands-on learning.
From davincilearning.org
2e Gifted
Twice-exceptionality can be considered an endogenous problem for gifted persons, particularly the more highly gifted. If a person has a vision, hearing, speech, or other physical disorder, the emphasis by professionals is most often on the disorder, with little emphasis given to enhancing their intellectual abilities. The gifted components are most often overlooked even though they have significant implications for the person’s educational and vocational success and self-concept....2e persons frequently underestimate their abilities because they evaluate their competence based more on what they are unable to do—the area(s) that lag behind—rather than on their substantial abilities; as a result, they often underachieve and are prone to depression.
Some gifted persons will have a specific learning disability; others will have physical or medical problems. The person’s intellect may be quite high, but because of motor difficulties, such as cerebral palsy,
From James T. Webb
Contact Lynne About Her Services for Gifted Adults
Natural left-handers should always be left to develop in their own way and be allowed to write left-handed if that is their choice. Forcing them to change hands and write right-handed can have very bad effects in later life as well as being traumatic at the time and ruining their handwriting!
The dominant writing hand is not just a physical thing to do with controlling a pen but a mental thing to do with the way the brain is organised and where certain functions occur. The brain is “cross-wired” to the body so the left handed side of the brain controls the right hand side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left. Changing the hand used for writing causes great confusion in the brain and can have a lot of knock-on effects.
Anything left-handed.co.uk
Lynne Azpeitia, MFT
The Gifted Adult Coach
310-828-7121
3025 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Encouraging, supporting and guiding gifted adults to achieve their goals and realize their dreams.
Here are many of the books I recommend to my gifted clients.
Coaching, Counseling, Psychotherapy & Consultation Specially Designed for Gifted People
Have a question? Need some information? To schedule an appointment or have a free consultation, contact Lynne about her Services for Gifted Adults
Lynne Azpeitia
The Gifted Adult Coach
310-828-7121
PHONE & VIDEO SESSIONS AVAILABLE
LOCAL
NATIONAL
&
INTERNATIONAL
SERVICES
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that dyslexic brains differ only in the ways they process printed symbols, when in reality they show an alternative pattern of processing that affects the way they process information across the board. Dyslexic brains are organized in a way that maximizes strength in making big picture connections at the expense of weaknesses in processing fine details.”
Email Lynne or give her a call to have a conversation about the benefits of Coaching or Therapy for Gifted Adults
Books
For Gifted Adults
&
Helping Professionals
“Many parents also discount giftedness when their children’s abilities are uneven or counteracted by other difficulties. ”
That's Not Autism: It's Simply A Brainy, Introverted Boy
I have followed William in my therapy practice for close to a decade. His story is a prime example of the type of brainy, mentally gifted, single-minded, willful boys who often are falsely diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when they are assessed as young children. This unfortunate occurrence is partly due to defining autism as a “spectrum disorder,” incorporating mild and severe cases of problematic social communication and interaction, as well as restricted interests and behavior. In its milder form, especially among preschool- and kindergarten-age boys, it is tough to distinguish between early signs of autism spectrum disorder and indications that we have on our hands a young boy who is a budding intellectual, is more interested in studying objects than hanging out with friends, overvalues logic, is socially awkward unless interacting with others who share identical interests or is in a leadership role, learns best when obsessed with a topic, and is overly businesslike and serious in how he socializes. The picture gets even more complicated during the toddler years, when normal, crude assertions of willfulness, tantrums, and lapses in verbal mastery when highly emotional are in full swing. As we shall see, boys like William, who embody a combination of emerging masculine braininess and a difficult toddlerhood, can be fair game for a mild diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, when it does not apply. More…
Q&A: The Unappreciated Benefits of Dyslexia
Danielle Venton
We see dyslexic kids with a verbal IQ of 140 or 145 who will read with good comprehension, and as a consequence won’t be recognized as dyslexic. But they still read at fairly slow pace relative to other students in the gifted programs, and their performance will suffer from their slow reading speed. And for some dyslexic students, their problems with reading may be less than in other areas, like writing and rote or procedural mathematics, but they arise from the same wiring differences that underlie dyslexic reading and spelling challenges, and traditional definitions of dyslexia that focus entirely on word sound or language processing really don’t capture the breadth of these differences. More
Improving the Self Image of a Dyslexic Child
Michael Ryan
In my practice I have worked with hundreds of children with dyslexia and have found that improving one’s self-image involves three things: identifying advantages, nurturing passions, and encouragement (A.P.E.). Recognizing and using the strengths of the dyslexic learning style can be considered such an asset if thechild’s environment is sensitive to these strengths. Identifying passions and interests is crucial. Dyslexics often have particular subjects or activities with which they are fascinated. Finding ways to link their advantages to their passions can be difficult, but is an extremely powerful intervention. Practicing and building upon skills already proven to be an area of success fosters motivation and furthers that success.
The contribution of supportive and significant adults in a child’s life to encourage a child’s interests and endeavors cannot be overestimated. More…
The Primary and Secondary Consequences of Converting Handedness
Writing is a process of the greatest complexity. Moreover, because it involves many different brain functions, it is also one of the most difficult tasks; one which only human beings have developed and come to grips with. The pre-dominant use of the non-dominant hand leads to complex functional disturbances, inhibitions, blockages, and an over-burdening of the entire brain. During writing, the greatest variety of cerebral skills are included here. Examples are the fine motor skills, speech, the pictorial representation of imagination of the series of letters as well as the simultaneous chain of thoughts, associations, graphic representations, memories, and recall of previously learned material which also run throughout. Scarcely any other human undertaking is comparable to writing in its multifaceted connections between the most differing brain functions. Accordingly, it is understandable why the overburdening that comes from converting handedness can lead to tremendous disturbance.
Superparenting for ADD
Ned Hallowell
Clearly outlined & organized, Superparenting for ADD offers a specific game plan that includes:
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Tune out the diagnosticians and labelers and simply notice and nourish the spirit of your child for who he is. Providing this unshakable base of support will set the tone for all interactions to come.
VIEWING THE MIRROR TRAITS. There are positive sides of the negative symptoms associated with ADD: stubbornness = persistence; impulsiveness = creativity; intrusiveness = eagerness. By recognizing the mirror traits, you avoid the ravages of shame and fear.
THE CYCLE OF EXCELLENCE. Use this critical 5-step process to help a child develop self- and social awareness. Nurture an environment in which a child can safely take risks, reserve time to let a child dabble as a way to learn, encourage playful practice, support mastery of a skill (whatever the skill may be), and then recognize a child’s accomplishments.
IDENTIFYING AND TAPPING THE SOURCE. Pinpoint your child’s inner, conative strengths, which drive what he naturally and spontaneously does, as opposed to what he is told to do or feels he must do. Your child will do his best when allowed to use these conative strengths.Drs. Hallowell and Jensen fully understand the real and everyday challenges–both at home and at school–facing parents of an ADD child. More...
The Biology of Auditory Processing - Sound Sensitivity
Fernette and Brock Eide
Parents and teachers may have found this maddening - children who have strong aversiveness to sounds that they flee the classroom, birthday parties, baseball games, and movie theatres, but perplexed expressions from audiologists who tell them that their child's hearing is completely normal. In our clinic was see auditory aversive (want to escape) behaviors in many conditions (for instance premature birth, CAPD, mild birth injury, autism spectrum disorders). In these paired studies, it becomes clearer why audiology tests didn't explain behaviors. More...
Managing the Blessing & Burden of Being A Gifted, Talented & Creative Adult
Lynne Azpeitia
"Sometimes when you climb a mountain, the oxygen is a little thin.”
Being a Gifted, Talented, and/or Creative adult can be a challenge. There are so many things that you want to do (and are capable of doing) that it can be overwhelming to figure out what to focus on first…There are healers who have trained their entire careers to be there for you when times get tough. Our guest today is one of them. Lynne Azpeitia joins us to talk about how to create a focused, balanced, and goal-oriented daily routine that puts Self-Appreciation at the forefront, and is created with your unique needs in mind. Join us for some love, laughs, and “ah-ha” moments as we explore how you can "Manage the Blessing and Burden of Being a Gifted, Talented, and/or Creative Adult". More…
Stealth Dyslexia
Brock L. Eide, and Fernette F. Eide
When you read the word dyslexia, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Probably you think of a reading disorder. That response is understandable, considering the way dyslexia is spoken or written of by many experts. For example, in 2003 the International Dyslexia Association defined dyslexia as “a specific learning disability...characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities...problems in reading comprehension, and reduced reading experience....”
Yet reading difficulties are just one of the many neurologically-based manifestations of dyslexia. (See the sidebar.) In fact, in our practice we often see children who are struggling academically due to difficulties that are clearly dyslexia-related, yet who show age-appropriate – and in many cases even superior – reading skills. Because of their apparently strong reading skills, most of these children have never been identified as dyslexic, or given the help they needed to overcome their academic difficulties. More…
The ‘Over-Excitable Gifted’: Managing Talent and Five Forms of Excitability
Michael Moffa
...Care must be taken not to equate psychomotor OE with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is estimated to affect 4.7% of adult Americans. ADHD is a recognized DSM disorder for which treatment and management, including medication, are recommended; psychomotor OE is neither a DSM listed condition nor otherwise a generally-recognized form of impairment. To equate ADHD and psychomotor OE would be like equating Type A behavior (also not a DSM category) and ADHD. More…
Gifted Children’s Challenges With Learning and Attention Issues
Peg Rosen
Children can be gifted and also have learning and attention issues. Many of these children go through school without being identified as having special talents or needs.
“Your child is gifted and needs special education?” Many parents are all too familiar with this kind of comment. You may hear it from friends. From family. Even from some teachers and doctors.
Yet there are lots of people who have exceptional ability in some academic areas and significant learning difficulties in other areas...Twice-exceptional children tend to fall into one of three categories. These categories help explain why students often go through school without the services and stimulation they need:
Students whose giftedness masks their learning and attention issues. These kids score high on tests for giftedness but may not do well in gifted programs. These students use their exceptional abilities to try to compensate for their weaknesses. But as they get older, they may be labeled as “underachievers” or “lazy” as they fall behind their gifted peers.
Students whose learning and attention issues mask their giftedness. Learning and attention issues can affect performance on IQ tests and other assessments for giftedness. For example, since many of these tests require language skills, kids with language-based challenges may not perform well. These kids may be placed in special education classes, where they become bored and possibly act out because they aren’t being challenged enough. Some of these children are identified, wrongly, as having emotional problems.
Students whose learning and attention issues and giftedness mask each other. These kids may appear to have average ability because their strengths and weaknesses “cancel each other out.” Consequently, these students may not qualify for gifted programs or for special education programs. More...
Successful Careers: The Secrets of Adults with Dyslexia
Rosalie P. Fink
These men and women were "turned on" to their topic, whether it was biology, physics, or psychology. Their imaginations took flight as they discovered their own interests and found books and hands-on activities that excited them. They pursued fields of interest that engaged their imagination so much that they experienced what Csziksentmihalyi calls flow — the exhilarating feeling of being carried away on a current. While reading, they were so engrossed that they seemed to “get lost” in good books. This total immersion based on involvement and enjoyment resulted in a loss of self-consciousness that was liberating and exciting, both intellectually and emotionally. More…
Understanding, Diagnosing, and Coping with Slow Processing Speed
Steve Butnik
All gifted are not alike. What's important about Working Memory & Processing Speed? Problems in WM and PM are often seen in Twice Exceptional Student; can cause troubles at home, can impact relationships, often define people's feelings about themselves.
It’s not unusual for gifted students to have slow processing speed. Of itself, slow processing speed is not a formal learning disability, but having it can frustrate students, teachers, and parents.……More
The Effects of Making a Left-hander Write Right-Handed
Natural left-handers should always be left to develop in their own way and be allowed to write left-handed if that is their choice. Forcing them to change hands and write right-handed can have very bad effects in later life as well as being traumatic at the time and ruining their handwriting!
The dominant writing hand is not just a physical thing to do with controlling a pen but a mental thing to do with the way the brain is organised and where certain functions occur. The brain is “cross-wired” to the body so the left handed side of the brain controls the right hand side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left. Changing the hand used for writing causes great confusion in the brain and can have a lot of knock-on effects…More
How Parents Can Best Support Their Children with ADHD
Ned Hallowell
,,,the refrain that you’ve had ever since as long as you can remember is try harder. You’ve got so much potential, you’re so smart you could do so much, get your act together, clean it up, try harder and and of course that just drives your self esteem down further and further and further because you know, you’re trying as hard as you can. You’re trying to and yet it takes you eight hours to do homework that it takes another kid one hour to do or as an adult, you have a brilliant proposal and you show up at the wrong place on the wrong day and it never you know gets the attention it deserves so, chronic underachievement until the diagnosis is made
.…More
A Positive, Strengths-Based Approach to ADHD
Ned Hallowell
The Hallowell method favors a comprehensive approach that addresses the totality of the child or adult who comes to us for help. Well-rounded treatment can include steps to alter first, the physical elements of what’s going on through medication, exercise, nutrition, sleep habits, prayer or meditation, as well as alternative treatments like neurofeedback and cerebellar stimulation; second, the behavioral elements of the issue through interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral modification plans, coaching, lifestyle changes, and parent counseling; and third, the psychological elements of the issue through individual therapy, couples or family therapy, or other therapies all aimed at promoting strengths and talents. Beyond that, we look at the milieu or system in which the individual lives and try to determine the best school, or the best job, or the best camp, or the best living situation, again always with the goal in mind of promoting talents and strengths. More...
2e Books
The genius in people with learning disabilities, mental health disorders
Kelly Wallace
There are numerous examples of people with learning disabilities and mental health disorders doing extraordinary things: the child on the autism spectrum who is masterful at putting together incredibly intricate Lego creations, the young person with Asperger's syndrome who knows more about presidential history than most adults, the child with dyslexia who is a master chef in the kitchen. This is not a coincidence, according to a new book that could help turn the stigma associated with these challenges on its head. More....
Before Referring a Gifted Child for ADD/ADHD Evaluation
Sharon Lind
Highly gifted children are easily misdiagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD).
Parents and gifted educators are asked with increased frequency to instruct gifted children to conform to a set of societal standards of acceptable behavior and achievement-to smooth the edges of the square peg in order to fit into a "normal" hole. Spontaneity, inquisitiveness, imagination, boundless enthusiasm, and emotionality are being discouraged to create calmer, quieter, more controlled environments in school...Here is a checklist of behaviors and characteristics to use before referring for testing. The checklist is designed to differentiate between confusing factors…More
The Dilemma of ADHD in Bright Young Girls
Dr. Shirley Liu
The most severe cases of ADHD I have treated have all been in females. Why is that? I believe it is because society tends to overlook the more mild cases of ADHD in girls and not bring them to medical attention unless or until their symptoms are severe, while symptoms in boys are noticed earlier and at lower severity levels. In fact, it is well-known that girls are under diagnosed. More…
Recognizing Stealth Dyslexia in The Gifted
Fernette Eide MD
Dr. Brock Eide and I coined the term “stealth dyslexia” in 2005 and introduced it in an article for the 2e Newsletter. It refers to students (often gifted) who could fly under the radar for detection because of compensatory strengths. We described the term in our first book, The Mislabeled Child:
"This pattern of difficulties is so common among the children we see in our clinic--especially among many of the most highly gifted--that we have given it its own name: stealth dyslexia." (p. 351). Some gifted children may be able to compensate for poor decoding by strong listening comprehension and the ability to “fill-in” what is not completely decoded by reading. For many with stealth dyslexia, writing is much more difficult than reading comprehension, and if teachers or school psychologists don’t recognize the writing difficulties associated with dyslexia, the syndrome may be missed. Instead, written work that does not reflect the student’s high abilities may be assumed to be due to lack of effort, carelessness, or poor fine motor coordination.
Considerable negative consequences can result from failing to identify dyslexic gifted students in the classroom. Some may develop apathy and school avoidance, secondary psychological problems (such as depression or anxiety), or even disruptive behaviors. Exquisite potential may be lost.
In our book, The Dyslexic Advantage, we talk in detail about the four dyslexia MIND strengths that form the acronym M-I-N-D. The letters stand for Material Reasoning, Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative Reasoning, and Dynamic Reasoning. More…
The Misunderstood Face of Giftedness
Marianne Kuzujanakis
In K-12 classrooms everywhere are children at risk for being misunderstood, medically mislabeled, and educationally misplaced. Not limited to one gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic group, they could be the children of your neighbors, your friends, your siblings, and even yourself.
These at-risk children are gifted children.
Contrary to common stereotypes, giftedness is not synonymous with high academic achievement. The gifted student archetype, while expected to be a mature classroom leader, does not fit all gifted students. Some are the class clowns, the lonely awkward child in the back row, the troublemaker. Special needs classrooms are where a number of gifted children end up -- their giftedness left unsupported...More
A Switch in Handedness Changes the Brain: Forcing lefties to be righties results in more brain activity.
Kerri Smith
Some brain regions are more active in 'converted' left-handers.
'Southpaw', 'goofy', or just plain 'lefty' are some of the many names that left-handers have been called. In certain societies, the aversion can go so far that some left-handers are forced to write with their right hand, regardless of their natural tendencies. More.....
Nonverbal Learning Disability: How to Recognize It and Minimize Its Effects
Jean M. Foss
People with NLD have difficulty processing nonverbal, nonlinguistic information, yet they may be very good at processing verbal information. They often fail to monitor the reactions of a listener. Frequently, they are excessively verbal and expressive. They depend on verbal input, verbal mediation, and verbal self-direction in order to function. They may talk a great deal, yet use words in a narrow, rigid way. Other behaviors affecting communication and social interactions include interrupting people, perhaps by speaking out of turn or by moving back and forth between people engaged in conversation, standing too close, or touching too much. Consequently, other people may choose not to interact with them, may avoid them, or may even ostracize them. Individuals of all ages may exhibit characteristics of NLD. The reactions of others tend to leave them feeling isolated, lonely, and sad. They usually want to learn appropriate social behaviors, and they generally respond positively to instruction that leads to improved social behavior. This digest provides an overview of NLD and principles for designing and implementing instructional interventions to address its effects. More...
Counseling, Multiple Exceptionality, and Psychological Issues
Edward R. Amend
As a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in giftedness… I, too, am concerned about the too frequent mis-diagnosis and over-diagnosis of gifted and talented youth….Asperger’s Disorder is another that is becoming commonly mis-diagnosed in gifted youth. Although there can be similarities between a gifted child and a child with Asperger’s Disorder, there are very clear differences. Thorough evaluation is necessary to distinguish gifted children’s sometimes unusual and sometimes unique social interactions from Asperger’s Disorder….
A “qualitative impairment” in social interaction is one of the two main characteristics of Asperger’s Disorder. Although the DSM-IV gives fairly explicit criteria for this type of social impairment, which does sometimes appear in gifted kids, the highly gifted child’s atypical social interactions or unusual modes of commenting and joking may often be misinterpreted as being characteristics of Asperger’s Disorder. However, a closer look at the criteria shows differences between Asperger’s Disorder and behaviors associated with gifted children. More…
Social & Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia
Michael Ryan
Research indicates that dyslexia is caused by biological factors not emotional or family problems. Emotional problems begin to develop when early reading instruction does not match their learning style. Over the years, the frustration mounts as classmates surpass the dyslexic student in reading skills. The frustration of children with dyslexia often centers on their inability to meet expectations. Their parents and teachers see a bright, enthusiastic child who is not learning…More
