5.4.2 Pedro: A Twice-Exceptional Student

This is the case study of Pedro, a boy with mild autism and giftedness. Often students with giftedness and autism have their disabilities more emphasized than their abilities and talents. Most of the time this is due to the teachers' lack of knowledge about aspects of giftedness and the custom to stick to the deficiencies of the students. This is the case of Pedro, a boy of 10 years with mild autism and with several characteristics of giftedness. Pedro had a diagnosis of autism at age of 3 and at 5, his psychologist pointed out characteristics of giftedness. At age 6 he was accelerated from first to second year. But up until age nine, at school, Pedro did not have his giftedness recognized and began to suffer from lack of challenges, boring classes, and bullying. At age 10 his mother sought a gifted specialist and began a negotiation for attention to his giftedness in school. Two meetings were held with the school in which the characteristics of Pedro were discussed: great speed of thought, great problem-solving ability, advanced mathematical knowledge, great knowledge of geography and history, and in all school subjects; we recalled Pedro's high academic performance, having high grades in all subjects. It has been shown that he often makes videos on YouTube about historical facts and geography and reads books about such topics that professionals in the area often read. In addition, he solves mathematical challenges, proposed by a teacher who is specialized in cognitive challenges, with exceptionally above-average performance. On these occasions, the school coordinator and special education teacher said that Pedro is often very nervous and impatient in class, is annoyed by the noise and usually leaves the class to go to the library. In a conversation with the School Coordination, a curriculum compacting and curriculum enrichment were suggested, as well as individual project development. The school has not been receptive and by the end of 2018, little progress has been observed. Meetings were scheduled for the beginning of 2019. Despite everything, Pedro likes school because he likes to study, however, lately a rejection has been felt by the school's coordination and he has been thinking of not going to school anymore.

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