Parenting Children with Learning Disabilities

Determining whether your child has a learning disability is a complicated process. After going through all of the assessments and evaluations you may feel overwhelmed if a learning disability is identified. It’s not uncommon to feel relieved that you now have a word for what you’ve known all along. On top of dealing with the emotional issues that are coming up, you have to figure out what you’re going to do about it, and what your options are. The first thing to do is to take a deep breath.

This overview will provide you with important information about the resources at your disposal to help you through this. As you will see, the public school system has a legal responsibility to provide your child with free services. This guide for parents and caretakers includes tips for coping during this stressful time and suggestions on how to work with teachers and school administrators in securing the best education for your child.

Gifted Children Who Have Learning Disabilities

Characteristics of high intellect can mimic other disorders causing misdiagnosis

Many gifted and talented children (and adults) sadly have been misdiagnosed by mental health professionals and other health care providers as having a disorder that they really don’t have. This occurs because there are many characteristics of gifted children, both social and emotional, that are mistaken to be a symptom of different disorders.

Characteristics of Gifted Children Mistakenly diagnosed as having: (followed by possible alternative cause of behaviors)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Relational problems and giftedness

Parents often lack information about characteristics of gifted children, and as a result the relationship between parent and child can suffer. These children can be both exhilarating and exhausting. Their behaviors can appear extreme, they are impatient, argumentative, and have temper tantrums. It is common for them to engage in sibling rivalry, power struggles within the family or with authority figures, or disengaging by withdrawing or underachieving. The child’s behaviors can be seen as mischievous, impertinent, weird or strong willed. The child is often criticized or punished for behaviors that really represent curiosity, intensity, sensitivity, or the lag of judgment behind intellect. They are easily bored while waiting for the other children in the classroom to keep up with them and as a result can become disruptive because of their frustration and impatience.

Most gifted children show a scatter of abilities

The difference between the highest and lowest scores on individual subscales within intelligence and achievement tests is often quite notable in gifted children. When the child is tested using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - III, it is not uncommon to find subscale differences greater than seven scale score points for gifted children, particularly those who are highly gifted. Most psychologists interpret these score discrepancies to indicate a learning disability, and in a functional sense they do represent that but most gifted children show a scatter of abilities ranging from Very Superior to Average level of functioning depending upon the area tested.

Is it a learning disability?

In children with a full scale IQ score of 140 or greater, it is not uncommon to find a difference of 20 or more points between Verbal IQ and Performance IQ. Most psychologists think that such a discrepancy is a serious cause for concern and is an indication of a serious brain dysfunction or learning disability. However, for the highly gifted individual, such a discrepancy is far less likely to be an indication of a pathological brain dysfunction, although it would suggest that the child has an unusual learning style and they may have a learning disability.