Shavonne James
Founder and Director, Paper Cranes Counseling; Licensed Clinical Therapist
We believe that twice-exceptional (2e) children must be recognized and supported for both their exceptional abilities and their areas of challenge or disability. Neither their gifts nor their struggles should prevent them from receiving appropriate educational opportunities and support.
This is especially important for gifted and talented children from historically underrepresented and underserved communities, whose abilities may already be less likely to be identified and whose learning differences may further mask their giftedness.
Twice-exceptional students are gifted children and adolescents who also have a disability or learning difference. Their strengths and challenges can mask one another. A child may demonstrate advanced vocabulary, creativity, reasoning, memory, or exceptional ability in one area while struggling with reading, writing, attention, organization, executive functioning, or emotional regulation.
These differences can lead to misunderstanding. A 2e student may be described as lazy, oppositional, unmotivated, careless, or not working to their potential when the student may actually be working extremely hard to manage an unidentified or unsupported area of need.
The reverse can also occur. When educators focus primarily on a child's difficulties, giftedness may go unrecognized. As a result, the student may not have access to gifted services, advanced coursework, enrichment, acceleration, mentorship, and other opportunities to develop their talents.
We believe that difficulty in one area should never be viewed as evidence that advanced ability cannot exist in another.
Historically underrepresented gifted and 2e students may face additional barriers to identification and services. Race, culture, language, socioeconomic circumstances, disability, and unequal access to assessment and enrichment can influence whether children's abilities and needs are recognized.
Schools should use comprehensive and culturally responsive evaluation practices that consider the whole child rather than relying solely on test scores, grades, behavior, or teacher referrals.
Families should receive clear and accessible information about gifted identification, special education evaluation, IEPs, 504 Plans, accommodations, advanced learning opportunities, and available services. A child's access to an appropriate education should not depend on a family's ability to pay for private assessment, tutoring, therapy, or advocacy.
Effective education for 2e students must address strengths and challenges simultaneously. Depending on individual needs, students may require advanced instruction, enrichment, acceleration, accommodations, specialized instruction, executive-function support, counseling, tutoring, or an IEP or 504 Plan.
Supporting a disability should not result in removing opportunities for advanced learning, and receiving gifted services should not prevent a child from receiving needed disability-related support.
Families, educators, educational therapists, clinicians, and other professionals should work collaboratively with students to understand their strengths and needs. Students should also be helped to understand their own learning profiles, develop self-advocacy skills, and recognize that needing support does not diminish their abilities.
Twice-exceptional children should not have to choose between having their gifts recognized and having their needs supported.
We call upon schools, families, and communities to recognize giftedness and disability as potentially coexisting, remove barriers to identification and services, and provide equitable access to both appropriate support and opportunities for talent development.
For historically underrepresented gifted and 2e students, recognizing the whole child is essential to ensuring equitable access to opportunity and the chance to develop their full potential.