The identification of twice-exceptional students, i.e. gifted students with special educational needs (SEN) or specific learning disabilities, poses a special challenge. Such students exhibit behaviours related to giftedness and SEN, and non-specific behaviours arising from the interaction of both types of behaviour, which every student exhibits in their own way. Research findings show that, due to their specific functioning, these students remain unidentified or are identified only later when learning and/or psychosocial difficulties arise. Parents are those who know best their children’s interests and gifts. Thus, they are usually the first to detect atypical behaviour. Some studies examining the parents of twice-exceptional individuals showed that the parents had an essential role in terms of enabling the child’s giftedness and SEN to be identified. Because of the need to ensure a properly challenging and, at the same time, adapted learning process, a cooperation relationship between school and parents is even more important for such students.
Therefore, this thesis aimed to determine to what extent the parents of such students are subject to stereotypes about twice-exceptional students and whether they acknowledge the possibility of specific behaviours that are characteristic for twice-exceptional students. Because the formal identification of giftedness in Slovenia is performed in primary school, this thesis was also focused on discovering what options the parents have to share their observations with parent support staff. Quantitative research approach was applied. A questionnaire on parents’ beliefs about twice-exceptional students was completed by 73 parents of students coming from five different Year 7 classes at five regular primary schools. Results show that parents accept the coexistence of giftedness and SEN. They also accept ambivalent behaviours that are typical of such students. The parents consider parental consultations as one of the channels to communicate the potential twice exceptionality of a student to the parent support staff. On the basis of results, it was established that the parents should have a consultative role in the identification of giftedness or twice exceptionality. Thus, upon being introduced to the basic characteristics of giftedness and twice exceptionality the parents could constitute an important source of information.
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