Adjusting versus Masking: How Neurodiverse Adults Can Thrive in a Neurotypical World
When talking with 2e adults, inevitably, the topic of “masking” comes up. After years of feeling different, they notice that their priorities, goals, and needs are dissimilar to just about everyone else they come into contact with on a daily basis. 2e adults learn to “mask” their needs in order to avoid judgment and conflict. […]
Balancing Social Emotional Needs and the “Real World”
SEL or Social Emotional Learning are buzz words in today’s educational system and recommended as a focus in the home to encourage social success. Yet it is imperative that SEL consider the existential considerations and emotional overexcitability that are often part of the gifted and twice exceptional person’s profile. While SEL can provide a cushion […]
Being 2e During the Holiday Season
As we enter the holiday season, 2e families and 2e adults are feeling lots of the BIG FEELS; some positive, some not so positive. You, your child, or your student might be feeling: Relief over a schedule that includes vacation days. Trepidation over office parties and social gatherings filled with small talk. Excitement about travel […]
It’s Time To Listen
“Grown ups stink!” So said a thirteen-year-old highly gifted, emotionally overexcitable, empathic, creative, dysgraphic child to his parents. He’d been to a new school for about two-and-a-half weeks when he shared his feelings. He expressed feeling like he was “treated like a kid,” had “no control,” and that he missed on-line learning. It was so […]
Precocious Play and Undue Discipline
A 2e child’s brain gets him into trouble. Seeking sensory input, feeling anxious about a situation or environment, or responding to an unseen need, a 2e child’s behaves in a way that is often misinterpreted as naughty, purposeful, dangerous, or manipulative adults. Sometimes teachers react without understanding the reasoning behind the child’s actions. The 2e […]
Building Understanding and Trust with Twice Exceptional Loved Ones
The 2e profile is often misunderstood. It’s not just a matter of parents, peers, and adults not understanding, it’s when they misinterpret and make negative assumptions that 2e people learn not to trust. The process is the same whether you are a 2e kid or 2e adult, to trust you need understanding and to gain […]
Top 10 Considerations When Parenting or Teaching a 2e Child
So often responses and reactions are based on misinformation, faulty assumptions and a deep-seeded need to fix. 2e folks are complex and knee jerk responses to the way they present in the world only serve to fuel their frustration and yours.
Shining a Light on the Shadows
Once you start positively reframing what’s around you, when you can make the conscious decision that there is always an upside, you start to notice the strengths and opportunities for growth and knowledge.
Hurricane Parenting
Parenting a hurricane mind requires hurricane parenting, riding along – albeit sometimes holding on for dear life – in order to avoid destruction.
Honoring Overexcitabilities Allows Us to Soar Safely
Overexcitabilities to gifted and twice exceptional people are like wind to a kite. They allow us to fly high but can also cause us to perilously fall toward earth, often in a dizzying and uncontrollable descent. Overexcitabilities are those intensities that come forth in the intellectual, emotional, imaginational, sensual (sensory) and psychomotor domains as identified […]