Academic and Emotional Readiness: Understanding the Connection for Twice-Exceptional Students

Nelson is a 13-year-old boy who is striking in many ways. He stands at least a head above his peers and can communicate about electronics in a sophisticated way. He’s also a master at building and architecture, and he has planned an ecologically friendly city that he hopes to get approved for construction one day. He has a heart of gold and can often be found volunteering at Habitat for Humanity or the ASPCA. Yet, Nelson has recently been asked to leave his school for fighting and “extreme anxiety.” He vomits daily when he arrives at school and is incapable of getting along with his classmates. He argues or physically fights with them on a regular basis. Despite these emotional issues, when his parents attended a school conference to discuss Nelson’s difficulties, they persisted in talking about Nelson’s academic work and his need to be challenged. That theme dominated the meeting at school rather than why he was emotionally upset in an arena that should play to his natural gifts.

 Maggie is a young girl of ten, scheduled to begin the fifth grade this fall. Maggie tests at the 99.9^th percentile on all standardized intelligence and achievement tests, with commensurate grades in school. Over the past year, however, she has begun to refuse to attend school and cries every Sunday night because she can’t face the thought of going to school for another week. Her teachers have noticed a precipitous decline in her participation in class and report that Maggie is heading to the school nurse’s office about three to four times per day. She has been missing assignments and her grades are dropping in spite of her clear intellectual prowess. Her parents are puzzled. There have been no obvious social issues – Maggie doesn’t report being teased or bullied – yet it’s clear that she’s very unhappy at school.