Excelling at everything
and needing help at the same time.
High abilities and a special educational need at once. Talent can mask the difficulty. The difficulty can mask the talent. Both exist. Both deserve attention.
9%
of students with a disability of some kind are also gifted. Talent can mask the difficulty, and the other way round.
Trail, 2011 · citado en Pfeiffer, 2017 · UNIR Editorial
60%
of twice-exceptional students are not correctly identified at school.
Davidson Institute, 2021
3x
more likely to be labelled a problem before being correctly identified.
Buïca-Belciu y Popovici, 2014
We can help.
Choose a category.
Identifying the 2e profile
The hardest part: neither the talent nor the difficulty shows on its own. Each hides the other.
2e intervention and support
It is not one or the other. A twice-exceptional student needs enrichment AND support at the same time.
Resources and research
Twice-exceptionality is a young field. Here is the best of it.
More resources (10)
News
In their own words.
🇸🇪 Suecia
“I have Asperger’s, and that means sometimes I am different from the norm. Given the right circumstances, being different is a superpower.”
Greta Thunberg
Activist with autism and ADHD — twice-exceptional in the real sense. Her grasp of complex data and her intensity are two sides of the same brilliant mind.
🇺🇸 Estados Unidos
“My brain runs too fast. Sometimes that is my greatest strength. Sometimes it is my greatest obstacle.”
Elon Musk
Entrepreneur with Asperger’s and ADHD. He has spoken publicly about how his different mind lets him see opportunities others miss.
🇪🇸 España
“Autism is not black and white. It is a very wide scale of greys — and talent can sit anywhere on it.”
Noemí Navarro
Spanish influencer with autism and ADHD. Author of El arte de no encajar, and a leading voice in the Spanish-speaking autistic community.
Bibliography
- Baum, S. & Owen, S. (2004). To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled: doble excepcionalidad. Creative Learning Press.
- Reis, S. M., Baum, S. M. & Burke, E. (2014). An Operational Definition of Twice-Exceptional Learners. Gifted Child Quarterly.
- Trail, B. A. (2011). Twice-Exceptional Gifted Children: Understanding, Teaching, and Counseling. Prufrock Press.
- Pfeiffer, S. I. (2017). Identificación y evaluación del alumnado con altas capacidades. UNIR Editorial.
- Buïcă-Belciu, C. & Popovici, D. (2014). Being Twice Exceptional: gifted students with learning disabilities. Procedia — Social and Behavioural Sciences.
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