Academic Coaching for Twice Exceptional Students

Workshop

Twice exceptional students are gifted and experience a challenge in learning. These students often demonstrate higher achievement when they receive academic coaching in addition to learning accommodations.  Twice exceptional student behaviors that result in underachievement or inconsistent performance can be symptoms of learning challenges. Learning and psychological disabilities may result from having ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, nonverbal learning disorder, executive function disorder, reading and written expression disability, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, and/or depression. Many of these disabilities affect executive function negatively, and as a result, negatively affect achievement in school. Tactics for supporting students include developing organization, prioritization, planning and time management skills and skills to persist to complete work. In the areas of self-regulation and attention, exercise can be used as a tool to improve achievement. Tactics for accommodating student executive function skills include assistive technology, exercise, and self-advocacy.  Academic coaching for twice exceptional students can be described as a working partnership between the student and coach that focuses on understanding how giftedness and learning challenges intersect, how this intersection affects academic performance, and how learning accommodations can support students as they strive to improve achievement.