Using High-Leverage Practices to Support Twice Exceptional Learners

Students documented as twice-exceptional, possessing both giftedness and a disability, are a group of learners that despite strong potential, are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Often, for these students, either the giftedness hides the disability or the disability overshadows the giftedness. It is important that teacher education programs help preservice teachers learn how to recognize and support students classified as twice-exceptional. High-leverage practices can help support twice-exceptional students. This article demonstrates how all four key components of HLPs (i.e., collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral practices, and instruction) can be incorporated into the plan to support twice-exceptional learners and maximize learning outcomes for these students