Kathy Linderman: Article for Chapter 2:
Song, K.H, & Porath, M. (2011). How giftedness coexists with learning disabilities:
understanding gifted student with learning disabilities (GLD) in an integrated
model of human abilities. Talent Development & Excellence, 3(2), 215-227.
Kwang-Han Song is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education
in the Faculty of Education at Won Kwang University, Iksan, Korea. His research interests
include twice-exceptional, giftedness, and autistic spectrum disorder. His current research
focuses on the discovery of giftedness beyond times and cultures and the original mind
forces that cause individual differences in cognition in terms of ability and disability.
Song’s co-author, Marion Porath is a Professor in the Department of Educational
and Counseling Psychology, and Special Education at the University of British
Columbia. Her research interests include different forms of giftedness. Her current
research focuses on gifted and gifted/learning disabled.
Song & Porath (2011) examine how gifted students and gifted students with
learning disabilities are different from each other in terms of ability and feeling. They
propose a model that explains the characteristics of GLD or 2E students “in terms of
general and domain-specific aspects of intelligence.”
This article was useful to my research topic because I believe that there is far more
to understand about the links between learners of all exceptionalities. While we as students,
researchers and experts in the fields of education, psychology and neuroscience have
learned a lot about the human brain processes, it is commonly agreed that we have only
scratched the surface of all there is to know.
I became interested in the idea of 2E during my first survey course in Special
Education. Since that time, it seems that every time I read a new book, article or take
another course, I keep coming back to the connection between giftedness and disability.
However, I feel that we as a community of educators keep looking to the experts in the field
when we may need some fresh ideas to make the next big connection. While Song and
Porath are not as well known in the United States gifted circles, I believe this article is
important as it looks at the link between disabilities and giftedness with a different
viewpoint.