Gifted children have different benchmarks

When Classes 9 and 10 enacted The Merchant of Venice, Tarun received a standing ovation. His authentic and nuanced portrayal of Shylock stunned the audience, who believed the kid was indeed gifted. But a week later, Tarun’s academic report told a different story. The boy had failed in three subjects, including English literature.

“Why can’t you put the same effort into exams as you put into acting?” asked his puzzled teacher as she handed him the report card.

Tarun simply rolled his eyes and slid the report into his bag. That a child could memorise vast tracts of Shakespearean prose and deliver them with panache only to fail in his English exam perplexed both his teachers and parents.

Tarun’s rendition of Shylock indicated that he not only understood the story but could also interpret the subtext. While the boy watched videos of plays and movies for hours on end, often pausing and backtracking to dissect a scene more closely, his teachers lamented that his attention span in class was less than five minutes at a stretch.

Children like Tarun are misunderstood and mishandled. In Tarun’s case, some teachers were of the opinion that he might have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. His parents took him to a psychiatrist who prescribed pills. Subsequently, his teachers found him less distracted in class but his performance did not improve much. After a few months, the boy also grew subdued and wanted to opt out of the dramatics club, the only activity that really engaged him in school.

Fortunately, during the summer vacation, when the psychiatrist advised his parents to take a break from the medicine, Tarun morphed into his cheery self. When he enrolled in a summer drama camp, the lustre in his eyes returned.

Tarun exemplifies the paradox of twice-exceptional (2e) children. In To beGifted & Learning Disabled, authors Susan Baum, Robin Schader and Steven Owen estimate that there are around 3,60,000 such children in the United States alone. There are about 1.2 million such students in India.

While learning disabilities (LD) have received considerable attention from educators, 2e children may continue to confound and frustrate them. As both learning challenges and inordinately high abilities may coexist within a child, with one often masking the other, the needs of this group are often unrecognised and unmet by mainstream schools.

Asynchronous learning

Baum and others describe some of the paradoxes exhibited by 2e children. While some of them may be a fount of original and complex ideas, they may have trouble expressing themselves coherently in writing. Likewise, they may demonstrate superior comprehension skills but subpar reading ability.

Though they may work with a razor-like focus for hours on tasks that engage them, they are unable to attend to more mundane activities. On the one hand, they hone their expertise in one area, while struggling to master basics in another. Further, they may hold stratospheric standards in some domains, while neglecting to perform in others.

Many schools have resource rooms nowadays that cater to specific difficulties faced by children with learning disabilities. However, the unique strengths of 2e children, which often lie outside the purview of conventional schools and resource rooms, generally go untapped.

Be it music, theatre or visual arts, these children may have singular talents bordering upon the exceptional. But because they also have learning difficulties, these islands of competence often lie fallow.

Baum and colleagues contend that it’s not enough to merely provide these children with remedial measures. In her own research with collaborators, Baum has found that a strengths-based approach works better for 2e children as it also imbues confidence and hones their skills. In fact, Baum recommends that instead of emphasising remediation, programmes that highlight strengths and proclivities are more efficacious.

To truly thrive, 2e children require a ‘psychologically safe environment’ where they are accepted. Further, teachers need to understand that 2e students’ development is likely to be ‘asynchronous,’ meaning that different domains may develop at vastly different rates.

These children also need to be given time to flower in their own ways without the stress of meeting preordained benchmarks in various areas. Nurturing relationships with teachers and mentors also goes a long way in helping 2e children express their potential. And, finally, teachers may continue to shine the spotlight on the strengths of 2e children as they mature into self-assured, productive and creative young adults.

(The author is an educationist)