Gifted+Students+with+EBD

GIFTED STUDENTS WITH EBD (Emotional Behavior Disorder)

Twice-exceptional students are often misplaced and underserved. Students with EBD are misunderstood in a regular/inclusion classroom but to be gifted with EBD is a struggle for some teachers to understand. It also leads to the student being underserved in the areas of gifted/talented and special education programs. EBD and gifted are often thought to be on opposite ends of the behavior spectrum and it seems that a student can’t be labeled EBD and gifted at the same time.

The uniqueness that is presented for a student diagnosed as gifted with EBD needs to be appreciated as well as their strengths and weaknesses. The student needs to be taught coping skills to deal with angst, frustration, and learning styles. A couple of possible coping skills that gifted/EBD students can benefit from include writing reflection journals and having an assigned counselor. Reflection journals are crucial to healthy development of the twice-exceptional child because they are a great outlet. Once the student writes in his/her journal a trusted adult should respond with honesty, but without judgment, to the student’s writing. An assigned counselor for gifted with EBD students is beneficial as a “safe” place for talking, releasing frustration, and calming behavior issues.

In classrooms with twice-exceptional students a great deal of time is spent on redirecting misbehavior in proportion to instructing behaved students. It’s necessary to develop ways to give students with EBD an equal amount of attention and instruction. Positive classroom atmosphere can assist with behavior issues. There is a correlation of poor academic performance and behavior problems. Once behavior is corralled in a difficult classroom, performance increases. Students need a taste of success and positive accolades then he/she is more likely to repeat the behavior. Success breeds success.

Twice-exceptional students, especially those gifted students with emotional or behavioral disorders, have needs that must be addressed in order to achieve success. Placement and programming are difficult for twice exceptional students because these students represent the both ends of the behavior spectrum. Teacher training and professional development is key for educators and programmers so that student’s traits, behaviors, exceptionalities, strengths, weaknesses and stereotypes are understood. Having background knowledge is useful for proper evaluation, identification, placement, programming, and unit progression for students expressing higher intellect and creative ability with EBD.

Scaffolding and support are essential for promoting emotional well-being and stimulation of intellectual and creative potential. The assigned counselor can help provide the student with mentors and models that support the child’s uniqueness while guiding him/her emotionally and academically.

All of these efforts are beneficial to ensure that more students aren’t lost to failure or mediocrity due to a lack of understanding about their exceptionalities. Educators need more training and understanding to adequately serve twice-exceptional students.

Drawbrowski's Overexcitabilities

Dabrowski, a polish psychologist and psychiatrist describes five overexcitabilities to explore traits of temperament, as they manifest in gifted children, how it can lead to social and emotional difficulties. He also describes common diagnoses to see how different is turned into disorder as well as strategies to reduce emotional overload that will bring problems to a manageable level.

Here is an in-depth look into Dabrowski: [|Looking Beyond Psychiatric Diagnosis]

Characteristics of Twice Exceptional Students
 * Strengths: || Challenges: ||
 * * Superior Vocabulary || * Easily Frustrated ||
 * * Highly Creative || * Stubborn ||
 * * Resourceful || * Manipulative ||
 * * Curious || * Opinionated ||
 * * Imaginative || * Argumentative ||
 * * Questioning || * Written expression ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Problem-Solving Ability || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Highly Sensitive to Criticism ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Sophisticated Sense of Humor || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Inconsistent Academic Performance ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">WideRangeofInterests, Special Talent || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Lack of Organization and Study Skills ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Advanced Ideas and Opinions || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Difficulty with Social Interactions ||

<span style="color: #ff00af; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">How to Identify a Child with Emotional Disturbance... <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">(a) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">(b) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">(c) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">(d) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">(e) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Twice Exceptional Resource Handbook from Colorado Department of Education

<span style="color: #ff00af; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Recommendations for High Ability Students with Behavioral Problems taken from: ** [|Square Pegs in Round Holes-These Kids Don't Fit] **


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Schools and universities need to devise inservice and preservice programs to provide information for educators that will broaden their views about the nature and needs of high ability students and students with behavioral difficulties to recognize the potential for students to concurrently possess both exceptionalities.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">School systems need to revise identification procedures to locate bright students with behavioral problems.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">The student evaluation should be comprehensive in nature; assessment must examine the full range of student strengths and weaknesses rather than the merely "testing" for the predetermined, a priori category.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">School systems need to implement practices that support educators in their efforts to serve bright students with behavioral problems.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Curricula for high ability students with emotional or behavioral disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder need to be appropriate for each individual child and, thereby, designed to be challenging, creative, and motivating.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Instructional practices for high ability students with emotional or behavioral disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder need to be diverse and determined for each child on an individual basis.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">The learning environment designed for high ability students with emotional or behavioral disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder needs to be conducive to creative pursuits and risk-taking, and to invite learning challenges.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Methods to develop autonomy, intrinsic motivation and self-regulation for high ability students with emotional or behavioral disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in place of extrinsic contingencies need to be explored and employed.

<span style="color: #ff00b3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Famous Faces of Twice-Gifted/Exceptional Students

<span style="color: #ff00af; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Supporting Students with Emotional Behavior Disorder

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">REFERENCES :

<span style="color: #a600ff; display: block; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">[|Examining the Issues of Twice Exceptional Students] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Twice Exceptional Resource Handbook from Colorado Department of Education <span style="color: #a600ff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">[|When Your Child Second Exceptionality is Emotional: Looking Beyond Psychiatric Diagnosis]  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"> Twice Gifted YouTube Video: Supporting Students with Emotional Behavior Disorder