TM Twice-Exceptional Newsletter 2November/December 2007 For parents, teachers and professionals. Issuee 25 Helping twice-exceptional children reach their potential. Featured in this Issue Our focus in this issue – Helping gifted kids with Asperger’s. Advocacy and By Erin Lane and Doreen Underwood Page Who’s in a great position to provide re- Asperger’s: The School sources and communicate with kids, parents, 3 Quote teachers, and administrators? The school Counselor’s Role counselor. I loved feeling special. I hated feeling special. By Linda Neumann Page Animals Serving Kids “Lassie” can pre-empt meltdowns, track kids – Garrison Keillor, 7 with Asperger’s who run off, administer deep pressure, and reminiscing on his gifted provide valuable companionship childhood at NAGC Interview: Providing a Licensed therapist Brian King runs a teen Page support group that helps Asperger’s kids fit Place of Acceptance in. 11 Also Inside From the Publishers ...................................................................................................................... 2 Strength-based Programming: In the News and Educators’ Perspectives .............................13 ! Resource: Autism Speaks and an Autism Video Glossary from FSU .......................................15 Event Coverage: NAGC’s Annual Convention, and ADDA’S Fall Regional Meeting ................16 Book Reviews: Look Me in the Eye and School Success for Kids with AS ..............................20 Sylvia Rimm’s Column: What Determines Giftedness? ............................................................22 Bob Seney on Books: Asperger’s for Younger and Older Readers ...........................................23 Parents’ Perspectives: Cathy Marciniak on “The System” ...................................................... 24 Events ...........................................................................................................................................26 2e From the Publisher Welcome! Welcome to the November issue of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter! The focus of this issue is on ways of helping 2e kids with Asperger Syndrome (AS). In our lead article, educators Erin Lane and Doreen Underwood de- scribe the role that the school counselor can play in helping teachers and parents understand and meet the needs of gifted Asperger students. Several articles on service dogs describe how these animals are beginning to play an important role in providing AS children with both physical and emotional support. In an interview with therapist Brian King, we see the importance of giving AS teens a place where they can find peers and acceptance. Readers wishing to read a primer on autism spectrum disorders and Asperger’s before diving into specific articles in this issue can check the 2e Newsletter website. Along with our regular columns and features, this issue includes coverage from two conferences, a regional confer- ence on AD/HD presented by the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) and the 54th annual convention of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). The NAGC session reported on in this issue is one of the many sessions 2e Newsletter covered. Look for coverage of others in the coming weeks on our website and in our next issue. We enjoyed having the opportunity to see and meet subscribers and friends of 2e Newsletter at the NAGC confer- ence. We appreciate your kind words, support, and suggestions for the newsletter. Please feel free to let us know what you’d like to see in the newsletter – either in person when we meet at conferences or by e-mail. Here’s another way to let us know what you’d like to see in future issues. At the end of this issue is a link to an on- line survey to gather your feedback on this issue. If you can take the time to complete the very brief survey, we’ll really appreciate it because it will help us give you what you want and need in the future. We thank you for reading 2e Newsletter. – Linda Neumann and Mark Bade Glen Ellyn Media November, 2007 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter is a bi-monthly publication about twice-exceptional children, children who are gifted and who have LDs – learning difficulties that go by many names, including learning disabilities, learning disorders, and just plain learning differences. Our goal is to promote a holistic view of the 2e child – not just the high IQ, or the quirkiness, or the disabilities, but the child as a whole person. Comments and suggestions are always welcome by phone, fax, or e-mail. 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter is published bi-monthly in January, March, May, July, September, and November. The cost for a one-year electronic subscription is $30. Contact us for group and institutional rates. Send changes of address to [email protected] or by mail to 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter, PO Box 582, Glen Ellyn, IL 60138-0582. Linda Neumann, Editor; Mark Bade, Business Manager. Phone: 630.293.6798; Fax: 630.344.1332. Web: www.2eNewsletter.com. E-mail: [email protected]. Editorial Board: Susan Assouline, EdS, PhD; Susan Baum, PhD; Kathi Kearney, MA Ed; Deirdre Lovecky, PhD; Marlo Payne Rice, MS; Linda Kreger Silverman, PhD; Joan Franklin Smutny, MA; Meredith Warshaw, MSS, MA. The contents of 2e Newsletter are not intended to constitute medical or clinical advice, which should be obtained from a licensed practitioner. The use of information from 2e Newsletter for commercial purposes is prohibited without consent in writing from Glen Ellyn Media. Copyright © 2007 by Glen Ellyn Media, unless otherwise noted. The yellow and red 2e logo on blue is a trademark of Glen Ellyn Media. We thank our supporters and subscribers. e Newsletter • November/December 007 www.eNewsletter.com 2e Featured Article Advocacy and Asperger’s: The Professional School Counselor’s Role in Assisting Twice-exceptional Children By Erin Lane and Doreen Underwood What Do We Mean by “Advocacy?” Being or having a gifted child with Asperger Syndrome (AS) can be extremely difficult and confusing. These indi- Advocacy in the school setting is defined as the viduals sometimes feel as though they have little support act of working toward modifications in “existing or and contradictory knowledge about how to handle the is- proposed policies, practices, and learning environ- sues they face. However, there is someone in the school ments on behalf of all students and families” (Bai- whose job it is to advocate for them: the school counselor. ley, Getch, & Chen-Hayes, 2007, p. 101). School counselors can provide resources, talk with teachers and administrators, and check in with students and parents regularly. They can help to make sure the consumed by their interests, and have either an inability classroom teacher understands and implements recom- or marked impairment in reading social cues. They can mendations made for these children. They can also be also be inflexible, lack common sense, and tend to see the support person to collaborate with the teacher to help things as black and white (Rosaler, 2004). facilitate classroom success. In this article we’ll examine Because some schools assume that AS kids are the the role the school counselor plays, and we’ll offer sugges- same as autistic children, educators may place them in tions for accommodations and strategies to teach gifted special education classes with students who have mental AS children both at home and at school. retardation or emotional disorders. This situation is not helpful for teaching AS students about social norms be- Advocacy in the School cause most students in these classes have inappropriate An important part of a school counselor’s job is to be social skills and are, themselves, unable to model suitable aware both of the general issues involved with AS and how behavior. The special education classroom can even be a to accommodate for it in the classroom. Equally important dangerous environment for the AS child, who tends to be is communicating with educators and administrators, naïve in social situations and may be taken advantage of keeping them up to date on the disability, and offering by overly aggressive students (Rosaler, 2004). suggestions for working with these students in the class- Another consideration is that the special education room. Even more critical is remaining aware of current classroom does not address the unique learning needs strategies as well as teachers’ perceptions in regard to of twice-exceptional children. Children with high IQs need these twice-exceptional (2e) students. Too often, teachers content delivered at a faster pace with greater depth and and administrators expect that a child who is gifted can complexity than the special education classrooms can handle class work and peer interactions without any prob- usually provide. lems. However, this may not be the case, especially for In the regular classroom, students with AS can rapidly gifted children with AS. memorize the facts being taught but need help making One way for a school counselor to advocate for a 2e connections between their strength areas in content and child with AS is to ensure that all educators in the school new content. They connect with the concrete rather than are informed about the characteristics of this disability the abstract, making it difficult to generalize from one and how they are manifested in a gifted child. Some com- area of learning and one situation to another. Because mon traits of gifted children with AS are: children with AS are often inward and narrowly focused • Asynchronous development thinkers, teachers