Literacy specialist Lois Letchford identifies four myths about twice-exceptional children: that standardized tests reveal their abilities, that one teaching method fits all, that reading is just decoding, and that they never fail academically. Her own child failed first grade and read only ten words on a test, yet earned a PhD from Oxford twenty years later.
Chapters
Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, literacy problem solver and author of the book Reversed Memoir. This week I'm talking about debunking myths of the twice exceptional child. There are myths about that these children show strengths and weaknesses and their strengths will hide their weaknesses and they'll sift through school as an average child. I'm here to debunk many of those myths. The first one that I'm going to debunk and talk about is that testing will show strengths and weaknesses. The testing may show nothing. Secondly, that we teach children the way we expect them to learn instead of questioning how is this child going to learn best. The third myth I'm going to look at is that when we teach reading, that critical skill, that we teach only decoding and sight words and we teach in a way That is rote memorisation and meaningless activities. It's a problem. And the 4th thing I want to look at is that twice exceptional children will not fail in school. All of these are worth exploring. Who am I to talk about it? I'm the mother of a child who failed first grade. He failed dramatically. Testing at the end of the year showed he could read 10 words and then he had no strengths. And I have a video made just about this. 20 years later, that same child, after extraordinary privilege, achieved a PhD from Oxford. No test ever showed his strengths in school. Yet he achieved way beyond expectations. So I'm going to explore all of that every day this week. So join me tomorrow. Hit like, hit subscribe, and listen again to— as we explore these 4 myths that debunk the twice exceptional child. Thank you.
