Twice Exceptional Students (2e)
Twice exceptionality (2e) means a person possesses one or more areas of giftedness as well as one or more learning differences. A hallmark of this profile is asynchronous development. This looks like learning profiles that contain areas in the gifted range combined with one or more areas of significant challenge.
It’s natural for parents or educators to see this and wonder, they're so good at math or they are so verbally advanced, but why is learning to read so challenging or why is staying organized so hard? It doesn’t make sense how one skill is effortless and another is such a hurdle.
I believe it’s so important that 2e become a bigger conversation in educational settings. So many students either go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed because of how bright they are and their high abilities may mask their challenges, or on the flip, their challenges may overshadowed their gifts, and they may never get the chance for their full potential and capabilities to shine.
How can we identify 2e? (Twice Exceptionality)
“When you’ve met one 2e person, you’ve met one 2e person.”
Part of the reason 2e is so complex and it's so easy to misdiagnose or miss diagnose is because each person is so unique. Someone gifted in math is going to appear much different than someone who’s emotionally, socially, or visually and spatially gifted.
Twice exceptionality may present in one of three ways:
The challenges mask the gifts.
I worked with a student who is dyslexic and had visual spatial gifts in the 98th percentile. But because in the early years of school we measure reading, writing, and spelling, her challenges masked the fact that she had high abilities in these other areas that aren't typically measured in school.
So the focus on her growing up was to remediate those weaknesses. She had these pockets of giftedness behind the scenes, but what happened in school (emphasis on remediation of her challenges without acknowledgment of her strengths) reinforced this perception that she was less capable.
The gifts mask the challenges.
This is the student whose gifts hide their challenges. Perhaps the strengths exist in the traditionally valued school areas, such as math and reading and writing.
A child I worked with who was gifted in math went through grade school receiving the message, you're so smart, you're so good at all of this. However, when he got to high school he hit this tipping point where the demands and expectations of the environment were too much. And all of a sudden his ADHD and his challenges with executive function were exposed.
Suddenly he felt the anxiety and the feeling of “something's wrong with me” in the exact same way that the student who had challenges who masked her gifts had felt. Although these two presentations appeared outwardly different, the internal experience of these 2e children were quite similar.
The gifts and challenges average each other out.
Due to the asynchronous nature of the 2e profile, the high scores when averaged with the lower scores can result in an an IQ score that appears “average” and is not a true reflection of the child’s ability or experience.
For example, a student may be in the 99th percentile for math and the 5th percentile for processing speed or working memory. Blindly averaging those scores leads to an IQ score in the average range and may mislead well-meaning professionals in how to most appropriately and effectively support the 2e child.
Now the child may be perceived to be having an average experience which is quite different than a 2e experience. The student may then be treated like they’re neither gifted nor have learning differences. The problem here is that what the child actually needs to thrive and to be successful is dismissed and ignored.
How does dual differentiation help twice exceptional kids in the classroom?
Twice exception kids really benefit from a concept called dual differentiation. This means providing them challenges in their areas of strength and support in the areas that are harder for them.
A huge component of the gifted personality is the desire to dive deeply into what they’re passionate about and really spend time in that lane. They crave the chance to engage in material that's meaningful to them, that makes a difference in the real world, and that they feel passionate about.
When we can lead with what kids do well and are interested in, we can use that as a bridge to leverage and support the things that are harder for them. And what happens is the child finally feels seen and is motivated to learn. They are intrinsically engaged.
Dual differentiation creates emotional safety within the school environment by building confidence in what students can do rather than focusing primarily on what they can’t. By allowing kids to feel safe and seen in what they do well we allow them to safely take risks, to make mistakes, and to participate and put themselves out there, which are necessary components for meaningful learning.
Common challenges for twice exceptional children: emotional regulation, anxiety, and risk aversion
Strength-based learning in action
Let's take for example a student who dislikes writing but is really creative and has that engineer's brain where they think more in pictures.
When you tell them to sit down and write out their ideas on a piece of paper, they feel immediately stuck. Why? We're leading with their challenges.
What if we flipped it? Let’s think about leading with what this student does well. What if they got to use building Legos as a pre-writing activity? They get to create a setting, create characters, and visualize what they want to write about.
Now that kid has buy in and wants to participate in this creative writing lesson because we started with what they loved. The little engineer who loves to build got to sit there and use their hands and use their imagination. And now their pre writing is something they're excited to get out on paper.
The dual differentiation I mentioned above is a form of strength-based learning, which is essential for 2e children to thrive.
When the focus is on remediating challenges without acknowledgment of the existing gifts and opportunities to explore those areas of interest and passion, students can begin to feel defeated and they can become anxious as school begins to feel emotionally unsafe. Perfectionistic tendencies may evolve because it’s so uncomfortable to fail or to make a mistakes that they’d rather not even try. Often students aren’t in a position to regulate their emotions and in this dysregulated state they become unavailable to engage in meaningful learning.
Twice exceptional kids tend to dislike accommodations, being singled out, or feeling like they're different. The key to providing the accommodations they need in ways they're willing to receive them is by making the environment strength-based for everyone. More choices, more flexibility, normalizing doing things in different ways for all students.
The beautiful thing about strength-based learning: it truly benefits ALL kids.
What can I do if this sounds like me or my child?
If you feel like, hey, this might be me, this might be my child — the best thing I recommend for you to do is look for professionals who are neurodiversity affirming and ask them, are you familiar with twice exceptionality?
Some are going to be, some are not, and that's okay. My hope is that people are going to continue becoming familiar with 2e, but in the meantime my recommendation is to align yourself with people who get it now.
“Align yourself with people who are willing to look at the strengths first and then support the challenges.”
And if you're a parent at home looking at a neuropsychological evaluation thinking, I don't know how to interpret this, here's my quick tip: look at the sub-test scores.
Like I mentioned earlier, the details get lost in the averages and a single summary figure can be very misleading, especially for kids with asynchronous scores.
I suggest highlighting if you see any scores that look extra high or extra low, then get curious about them. How can you bring those strengths into the way that you do things at home, the way you support their academics, and the way you communicate with your child's teacher?
It is such an up-level to a child's emotional experience with learning.
You Might Also Enjoy…
The shareable pamphlet I mentioned at the end of the episode for creating equitable learning environments for all students (pamphlet).
Still curious about anything we mentioned today? I'd love to hear what's on your mind.
It's really a dream come true to have a platform to discuss these issues that are so near and dear to my heart with you. And I'm just so grateful that you're here with me today and ready to support each other on our journeys.
