Recently, some 51Թ members have been excited to reactivate our Gifted/Twice-Exceptional Students Affinity Group. This group will share–both with each other and the association as a whole–comments and questions on the nature and needs of gifted youth generally, and those with disabilities specifically (a group often referred to as “twice-exceptional” or “2e” youth).
Members will also discuss best practices in consulting for these students. They will share their knowledge at quarterly Zoom meetings, conference presentations, and roundtable discussions. In general, we will try to answer these three questions:
- Who are gifted/2e youth?
- What are some joys and challenges these students pose?
- What are promising practices in working with them?
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the answers that our Affinity Group will be exploring over time.
Who Are Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Students?
Many members of the Gifted/2e Affinity Group, as well as many other 51Թ consultants, have encountered gifted students before. Gifted students, according to the federal K-12 definition of giftedness, excel in intelligence, academics, creativity, visual and performing arts, and/or leadership. IECs may have seen gifted youth frequently over the years, through these students’ consistently high GPAs, their success in creative writing or arts competitions, and/or their election to numerous school, neighborhood, or state leadership positions.
Twice-exceptional youth are gifted but also have one or more disabilities. According to the federal K-12 definition of disabilities, these students may have challenges in learning, emotional development, attentional skills, communication, hearing, vision, physical health, or intellectual development.
Because of this combination, 2e youth may have high and lows among, or within, their intellectual, academic, creative, artistic, and leadership skills. These differences may be present both within and outside school.
Joys and Challenges in Working with Gifted and 2e Youth
Gifted and 2e students may be a joy for IECs to work with because of their unusual sensitivity, ambitious goals, and out-of-the-box thinking. Gifted youth may espouse advanced ideas, achieve at extraordinary levels, create outstanding works of art, and lead others in difficult but necessary directions. Among some 2e youth, these tendencies may seem especially sensitive, ambitious, and unusual, providing an unexpected joy and even a fresh take on life for IECs!
However, gifted and 2e students may seem demanding, with high goals, tight timelines, and elevated expectations of adults. Some 2e students may seem particularly puzzling, demonstrating both unusual highs and lows in their profiles—a range that one single student usually does not encompass. Frequently, 2e youths’ distinctive combinations of traits may present themselves in a negative rather than a positive light. IECs may find themselves advising some 2e students, with their up-and-down profiles, who are in danger of not achieving their college admissions goals because they have rallied very late to “get it together” on GPA goals, they have found arts but not academics as a refuge, and they are effective but idiosyncratic leaders. Oftentimes, gifted and 2e youth and their IECs may not be aware of these students’ underlying challenges and their needs for assessments to clarify such issues.
Promising Practices for Working with Gifted and 2e Students
Many gifted students may benefit from an IEC’s guidance for them to be more comprehensive in their college searches in order for them to achieve their goals. These students’ high school academic achievement may need to be higher than they realize. They may need to try not just for As but also for particular academic success in difficult courses. They may discover that they should develop creative products, not just effective right-answer memory techniques, in their coursework. Further, they may need to take on leadership roles in which they should show empathy and not just the ability to have others follow them.
Effective consulting with 2e students may be even harder than with other gifted youth. 2e students may strongly desire to express to IECs their uncommon insights about life to IECs, even though IECs may wish to stick to the college-search schedule. 2e youth may want to choose courses that are very difficult rather than those that are more assured As. They may wish to open up about their challenges to broad groups of students in order to be truly understood, an opening up that some other gifted youth may not show.
We invite 51Թ consultants who wish to learn more about these students’ specific nature and needs, their joys and challenges, and effective approaches to consulting this population to join the Gifted/Twice-Exceptional Students Affinity Group. Visit the to join our community.
We hope to see and hear from you as our group proceeds!
By Terry Friedrichs, PhD, EdD, 51Թ (MN)