Specific learning difficulties, are part of a neurological package of atypical developmental conditions that appear more frequently in the last decades. It can turn out to be a promising fact, considering that significant amount of evidence prove that among the specially gifted, atypical cerebral structure is more the rule than the exception. Many of the great creators, irrespective of their level of intelligence, show an atypical cerebral structure, which is usually associated with some kind of dysfunction. Atypicality is not necessarily bad. For an extreme example see the wings, which are totally atypical for a human, and can cause difficulties, but many advantages of that atypicality could be listed. The provision of the gifted could consider the predispositions for the exceptionalities as possible ways to the talent development by recognizing that an individual's development can hold far greater possibilities than imagined earlier, and depending to a far greater extent on how well the environment fits the individual needs at particular moments. Talent is a social construct, which has to be in accordance with the special neurological conditions that may appear even in types of achievement difficulties.

1. TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Éva Gyarmathy
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
NEUROLOGICALLY
BASED ACHIEVEMENT
DIFFICULTIES
and the

2. TALENT DEVELOPMENT
NEUROLOGICALLY
BASED ACHIEVEMENT
DIFFICULTIES
and the
Atypically functioning
nervous system
Atypically functioning
nervous system
Atypical
achievements
Atypical
achievements

3. NEUROLOGICALLY
BASED ACHIEVEMENT
DIFFICULTIES
Attention
deficit
Specific learning
difficulties
Hyperactivity
dysgraphia
dyscalculia
dyslexia
Impulse
control deficit
Control
difficulties
• Intelligence independent
• Culture dependent
• Atypically functioning nervous system
• Lifelong advantages and disadvantages
Autism
spectrum

4. Frequently described
elements of the
neurological background
• troubled connection between the brain hemispheres
• slow adaptation system
• slow development of the automatic processes
• unsufficient functioning of the cerebellum
A nervous system wired for an atypical way of thinking

5. Frequently described
elements of the
neurological background
• special information processing
• sensitivity to the changes of quality of the stimuli
• poor automatization
• poor direction and ryhtm keeping
A nervous system wired for an atypical way of thinking
• unusual perception
and reactions
• receptivity
• more consciousness
• more individualways

6. 1. fails in simple tasks, but it solves difficult ones,
2. is poor in the school achievements but leads
extremely high-level free time activities,
3. may suffer in the primary but excel at the university.
Tannenbaum, A., & Baldwin, L.J. (1983) Giftedness and learning
disabilities: A paradoxical combination.
A paradoxical learner
Cambridge scientist Sir John
Gurdon, won the Nobel Prize in
Medicine in 2012.
His school science report began
with the word ‘disastrous’ — and
went downhill from there. Scored
two marks out of a possible 50.

7. The criterion for normality is that
something is typical and
desirable

8. atypical perception
fast reactions
hunger for stimuli
strenuousness
a tendency to
question authority
low tolerance for
monotony
disruptive behavior in
the lack of challanges
Steve Jobs
Amadeus
Mozart
ADHD and talent
characteristics
Turbulent learning
desire to act
and create

9. Glenn
Gould
Alan
Turing
Temple
Grandin
George Orwell
Indivertible
thinking
 Concrete
 Creates clear concepts
 Deeply committed to a given area
Autism spectrum and
talent characteristics
Ludwig
Wittgenstein
Srinivasa
Ramanujan

10. Specific ways
of thinking:
 Spatial-visual thinker
Seeing the big picture
 Intuitive
 Imaginative
Signs of talent and
specific learning
difficulties
Pablo
Picasso
William
Butler
Yeats
Benjamin
Franklin
Agatha
Christie
Anatole
France

11. Pablo
Picasso
William
Butler
Yeats
Benjamin
Franklin
Agatha
Christie
Anatole
France
Tom
Cruise
John
Lennon
Maria Callas
Alfred Hitchhock
Albert
Szentgyörgyi
Specific ways
of thinking:

12. Diagnosed Nobel Prize Winners
Carol Greider co-discovered telomerase
and got the Nobel Prize in 2009.
She is dyslexic. As a kid she learnt to
memorize things very well because she
couldn’t spell words. So later when she got
to take classes like chemistry and anatomy
where she had to memorize things, it
turned out she was very good at that.
Jacques Dubochet won the Nobel Prize
in chemistry in 2017 shared with two
colleagues. They were awarded for 3D
views of life’s biological machinery.
He noted of his dyslexia: “This permitted
being bad at everything … and to
understand those with difficulties.”

13. SCANNING
SKIMMING
To find factsTo answer questions
To save timeTo preview the material
Reading with
dyslexia

14. • random
• impulsive, active
• holistic, visual
• sensation oriented
• collector
• methodical
• controlled, steady
• sequential, verbal
• system oriented
• productor
Literacy Audio-visuality
Neurological
harmony
Whole brain information
processing

15. • Physical exercises
• Arts, music
• Strategic games
CULTURE = TRAINING OF THE BRAIN
TRAINING OF THE BRAIN = CULTURE
Neurological
harmonization
There are ancient solutions
to connect the two types of
informantion processing and
create the third type

16. It is the
21st
century
 The changes in the environment change
significantly the way the brain works.
 There are more neurologically based
learning difficulties, autism and ADHD in
the 21st century than 100 years ago.
 Atypicality is not necessarily disorder if
the environment is prepared to provide
proper provision.

17. http://www.slideshare.net/gyarme/presentations
http://www.diszlexia.hu/English.html
gyarmathy.eva@gmail.com