Identifying 'twice-exceptional' students

Emerging research on the "neurodevelopmental paradox" of twice-exceptional students highlights the need for educators to take an earlier, more holistic approach to evaluating and teaching students with disabilities.

Often, when people think of a gifted student with disabilities, they picture an autistic savant, like Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie "Rain Man," but in reality, "there are a lot of kids who are really struggling, and we totally miss them," said M. Layne Kalbfleisch, the principal investigator of the Krasnow Investigations of Developmental Learning and Behavior, or KIDLAB, at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va. (Sarah D. Sparks at Education Week)