RISK AND RESILIENCE RESEARCH

Dole, S. (2000). The Implications of the Risk and Resilience Literature for Gifted
Students With Learning Disabilities, Roeper Review, 23(2), 91-96.

• Early research focused on risk factors, while recent research is focusing on resilience. (p. 91)
• 3 categories of protective factors:
  (1)  Personality factors
  (2)  Family cohesion and lack of disharmony
  (3)  External support systems
• It is important to note that a risk factor in one situation can be a protective factor in another.
• In a longitudinal study of at-risk babies born in Hawaii, a shifting balance was found.  “During the first decade, boys appeared to be more vulnerable … During the second decade and especially at late adolescence, the balance shifted in favor of the boys. … However, the balance appeared to shift once again at age 30 in favor of females.” (p. 92)
• “There is disagreement in the literature as to whether giftedness increases vulnerability or strengthens resilience.”
• Gifted Latino young men described “family support, other supportive adults and involvement in a variety of extra-curricular activities and summer enrichment programs” as protective buffers.
• Resilient African American youth “have characteristics that are culturally specific.  They often assume bi-cultural identity or put on a façade of racelessness.  It has also been found that emotional and physical support from their African American peers contributed to their resiliency.” (p. 93)
• Children with learning disabilities scored lower than the controls on self-efficacy, self-assurance, and interpersonal skills while in school.  By the time they reached age 32, however, their lives had improved considerably.
• “Ongoing parental understanding and support is perhaps the most important protective factor as it is most frequently mentioned in studies on resiliency.”
• Early identification of LD and giftedness is key.
• Emphasize what a child can do rather than what a child cannot do.
• Intervention programs must “ activate the sources of support, such as family support, that already exist to improve the child’s cognitive skills and enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy.” (p. 94)
• An adult who grew up gifted with learning disabilities:  “Healing the emotional wounds has required forgiving those who didn’t know any better and making peace with my worst unrelenting critic all those years … myself.”
• Curriculum adjustments must focus on the interests of these students.
• “Research has indicated that for students who are gifted with learning disabilities, affective needs may need to be addressed even before academic ones."
• “Self-knowledge is a necessary precursor to self-acceptance, frequently appearing in the resilience studies on individuals with learning disabilities.”
• “Interests and hobbies out side of school play a key role in effective intervention designed to nurture abilities and develop self-esteem and self-efficacy in gifted students with learning disabilities.”  (p. 95) 
  
• “It is clear from the research that the whole person in his or her whole environment, not just the school environment, must be addressed.”
• “The resilient individuals had at least one person in their lives who accepted them unconditionally.”
  

Gardynik, U. M. & McDonald, L. (2004). Implications of Risk and Resilience in the Life of the Individual Who is Gifted/Learning Disabled, Roeper Review, 27(4), pp. 206-214).

•  “Researchers have also found that under most adverse circumstances there are protective factors that serve to buffer the individual’s response to adversity.” (p. 206)
• “There is no universal definition of resilience; however, it is delineated as ‘successfully coping with or overcoming risk and adversity, or the development of competence in the face of severe stress and hardship’.”
• “It is sometimes difficult to identify competent children because the competence level of a given child changes over time.”  But does the school’s assessment of the child also change over time or do labels follow that child through school?
• 3 variables that serve as protective factors in a child raised in poverty:
  (1)  Individual child temperament
  (2)  Family context
  (3)  Presence of external support “such as a teacher or the presence of an institutional structure that encourages ties to the community”
• Several stories from studies follow regarding resiliency in children
• “Resilient children may also attain a sense of value from reading.”  They escape into an imaginary world that comforts them. (p. 207)
• American and Canadian definitions of learning disabilities are given
• “A learning disability is an adverse circumstance over which the child initially has little control. … The high level of stress associated with the school environment [for the LD child] makes school itself a risk factor.” (p. 208)
• 1999 study found that “adolescents with LD experienced higher rates of depression than students without LD.”
• “Although children with LD understand what is desirable action in a given social situation, they opt for a less competent solution.”  Why?
• “Negative socialization in childhood [of LD children] may contribute to adjustment problems, such as dropping out of high school and juvenile delinquency.”
• “Academic assistance provided by teachers needs to be supportive of the student taking personal responsibility for academic success, thus not leading to teacher dependency.”
• 5 risk factors for academically gifted students:
  (1)  Asynchronous development leads to a misfit among peers
  (2)  Unrealistic expectations of adults in the child’s life, leading to “chronic power struggles, defiance, passive-aggressiveness, depression, hopelessness, underachievement, and drug and alcohol abuse.”
  (3)  Overinvolvement of parents creating undue pressure on child, leading to “rebellion or psychological complaints such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.”
  (4)  Disparity between instructional environment and capabilities of gifted child, leading to boredom “and even disengagement from school, provoking the gifted child to exhibit problem behaviors.”
  (5)  Vulnerability to social and emotional problems “because he or she may have trouble finding an appropriate peer group.”  (pp. 209-210)
• Gifted boys seem to be at a disadvantage in elementary school, but gifted girls are at a disadvantage in adolescence. 
• “Academically gifted children may share many characteristics with resilient individuals:  verbal ability, intelligence, risk-taking, high self-concept, good self-efficacy, academic achievement, reflectiveness, maturity, an internal locus of control, and self-understanding.”
• “Neihart (1999) found that the psychological wellbeing of the gifted child is dependent on the type of giftedness, the educational ‘fit,’ and the gifted child’s personal characteristics.” 
• “The identification of the individual who is G/LD should also include personality and behavioral disturbances, in addition to depressed academic skills.” (p. 211)
• “A focus on the weaknesses of a student without a similar focus on the development of giftedness can result in poor self-esteem, lack of motivation, depression, and stress.”
• “Children who are both gifted and learning disabled have a paradoxical combination of abilities and have been described as ‘paradoxical learners’ because they are able to synthesize difficult information or understand complex math concepts while they are unable to obtain basic skills, such as spelling simple words or doing basic computations. … teachers and parents see this confusing pattern as stupidity, laziness, or willful contrariness.”
• “The ideal learning environment for the student who is G/LD focuses on the student’s strengths and interests while simultaneously addressing his or her academic deficits.”
• In a study conducted in 1990 by Minner, “teachers were less inclined to refer a child with learning disabilities for possible placement in programs for gifted students than an identically described child without learning disabilities.  Teachers were also less inclined to refer a student from a poor or middle class family than an identically described student from an upper class family, although children who are gifted can be found in all social strata.”
• Gifted individuals with learning disabilities:
  (1)  Hans Christian Andersen
  (2)  Albert Einstein
  (3)  Thomas Edison
  (4)  Leonardo da Vinci
  (5)  George Patton
  (6)  William Butler Yeats
• “There is little empirical research on the protective factors that contribute to resilience in individuals who are G/LD.
• “Encouraging and nurturing the talents of students who are G/LD would contribute more to their success in life than equal efforts to remediate basic skills.” (p. 212)
• “It is possible that programs stressing the abilities rather than the disabilities of students who are G/LD may facilitate traits that are associated with resilience."
• “To facilitate resilience, children who are G/LD need to be identified as early as possible.  This would require that educators be made aware of this exceptionality and consciously look for it.” (p. 213)
• “When we are looking at a student who won’t do the work, how do we know we aren’t actually seeing a child who can’t do the work?”