Emily
Gifted Dyslexics
We're just back from the Wallace Research Symposium and unfortunately are still having connectivity problems, so our posts may be a bit irregular until we manage to switch to DSL.
Because we see all sort of different students with learning or school related challenges, we see non-dyslexics, dyslexics, and students with a range of IQ test scores. This allows us to look individually at factors attributable to dyslexia, giftedness, and both.
Although dyslexia has been defined different ways, the general consensus has been that dyslexia affects fluent word recognition and recall, spelling and word decoding, and secondarily, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
If you look at the graph below, it shows that neuropsychological testing of dyslexic students showed a continuum of difficulties that agreed fairly well with established definitions (e.g. the International Dyslexia Association). These students had IQ test results in the average range for their age. Here the black bars represent the percentage of dyslexic students tested who missed age norms for that section of testing.
Interestingly, when we compared the neuropsychological findings of these students with "gifted dyslexics", here defined as students with at least 3 ceiling (16-19) scores on I.Q. testing, we found a very different profile. For those of you who don't follow I.Q. tests, this roughly means the students scored so high in these subtests that they 'hit the ceiling' - so we couldn't even accurately estimate how high they were in this cognitive domain.
The gifted students were able to compensate for some of their difficulties through outstanding memory abilities or metacognitive strategies, so that they could meet age norms in classic dyslexic deficit areas like phonology or reading comprehension (see - more red). But when questioned and tested carefully, we found that these students were just more adept at using compensatory strategies to overcome dyslexic challenges.
For instance, one brilliant young man told us he just learned to memorize the sound of words so that he didn't have to sound them out. Another used verbal and mathematical memory strengths to remember visual material.
These students were clearly caught between the cracks because their compensations prevented them from being recognized as dyslexic. In fact, because of their unique blend of exceptional strengths and compensated weakness, they also seemed to be missed as being gifted.
It's important to recognize these kids because they may present in inexplicable underachievement or erratic test performance. Their written output may vary dramatically depending on whether they must write by hand or are able to use a laptop. There's actually much more to say about gifted dyslexic students, but we'll be posting more on this, soon.
Because we see all sort of different students with learning or school related challenges, we see non-dyslexics, dyslexics, and students with a range of IQ test scores. This allows us to look individually at factors attributable to dyslexia, giftedness, and both.
Although dyslexia has been defined different ways, the general consensus has been that dyslexia affects fluent word recognition and recall, spelling and word decoding, and secondarily, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
If you look at the graph below, it shows that neuropsychological testing of dyslexic students showed a continuum of difficulties that agreed fairly well with established definitions (e.g. the International Dyslexia Association). These students had IQ test results in the average range for their age. Here the black bars represent the percentage of dyslexic students tested who missed age norms for that section of testing.
Interestingly, when we compared the neuropsychological findings of these students with "gifted dyslexics", here defined as students with at least 3 ceiling (16-19) scores on I.Q. testing, we found a very different profile. For those of you who don't follow I.Q. tests, this roughly means the students scored so high in these subtests that they 'hit the ceiling' - so we couldn't even accurately estimate how high they were in this cognitive domain.
The gifted students were able to compensate for some of their difficulties through outstanding memory abilities or metacognitive strategies, so that they could meet age norms in classic dyslexic deficit areas like phonology or reading comprehension (see - more red). But when questioned and tested carefully, we found that these students were just more adept at using compensatory strategies to overcome dyslexic challenges.
For instance, one brilliant young man told us he just learned to memorize the sound of words so that he didn't have to sound them out. Another used verbal and mathematical memory strengths to remember visual material.
These students were clearly caught between the cracks because their compensations prevented them from being recognized as dyslexic. In fact, because of their unique blend of exceptional strengths and compensated weakness, they also seemed to be missed as being gifted.
It's important to recognize these kids because they may present in inexplicable underachievement or erratic test performance. Their written output may vary dramatically depending on whether they must write by hand or are able to use a laptop. There's actually much more to say about gifted dyslexic students, but we'll be posting more on this, soon.
posted by Mike at 6:16 AM
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