For many, the notion of an individual being both gifted and learning disabled is a paradox that is not easily comprehended.  These children and adults do exist however, and the identification and teaching of such individuals is a great and immediate challenge to those of us who are evaluators and educators.  While the field of gifted/LD is one of potential controversy, research has shown us that these two conditions can, and do, exist simultaneously.  Children defined as such display remarkable strengths and/or talents in some areas and disabling weaknesses in others (Baum, 1998).  According to Susan Baum, the key to identifying this heterogeneous group is to understand three categories: 1) identified gifted students who have subtle learning disabilities, 2) unidentified students whose gifts and disabilities may be masked by average achievement, and 3) identified learning disabled students who are also gifted, although not recognized as such. 

Having a gifted child is a bewildering experience for a parent. Children differ, their stories differ. But you probably knew when he/she is young that you have an interesting and bright (if often difficult) child. The real problems usually start when the child hits the school system. Even then you can manage reasonably well until middle school, was our experience and that of others we know. It's often middle school or ninth grade when things start to fall apart. Neither you nor your son/daughter can understand why someone so bright cannot stay organized or finish projects, and ends up with as many F's as A's while having mastered the class with the F just as well as that with the A. Both you and your child feel like and are labeled as failures, and you both feel helpless about how to make things better.

I often ponder this question and wonder why "gifted" causes teachers, parents and students (some, not all) to bristle at this word.  In his address to the Iowa Association for the Gifted (2005) Michael C. Thompson said, "Somehow, in our egalitarian society, the fact of gifted intelligence puts us in a state of ethical dissonance.  What we know about gifted children appears to clash with what we know about social equality and universal human value.  But the clash is artificial; it is illusory.  It is a mis-clash.  We are mixing the apples of high intellectual ability with the oranges of human equality.  We are all equal, but we are not all identical; these properties exist at different levels of meaning." You can read the entire speech at http://www.iag-online.org/allchild.htm.   

Assessing gifted children is not like assessing any other type of child. I am often asked whether or not it matters if a psychologist or specialist who routinely evaluates children necessarily needs to have a working understanding of the complexities of gifted children, and each time I say, "Yes!" Unlike other populations of children, the test performances of gifted children on measures of cognitive abilities vary tremendously. Without getting too complicated, let me list some of the major dilemmas facing parents who wish to better understand their gifted child: