This past weekend, Bridges 2e Center for Research and Professional Development hosted the . I had the honor and privilege of attending its Super Sunday program, which offered a diverse range of presentations by leading experts in the field of Gifted and Twice-Exceptional research, advocacy, talent development and education. While not the full picture of the many wonderful conversations I had with new and familiar faces, here are a few highlights of the people, places and presentations that I learned from at this special event.

Susan G. Assouline, Ph.D. is a research, scholar and director of the at the University of Iowa, as well as 2019 2e Hall of Fame inductee. Her presentation, The Paradox of Twice Exceptionality: Unlocking the Door to Talent Development, introduced psychoeducational implications of clinically-based research with twice-exceptional individuals, as well as interdisciplinary research aims of neuroscientists, educators, computational geneticists and clinicians to help unlock and celebrate talent development.

Rick Olenchak currently serves as Head of the Educational Studies Department, Professor of Educational Psychology & Research Methodology, and Professor in the at Purdue University. His presentation, Twice-Exceptional Persons, the 21st Century, and Lifespan Development as Viewed through an Affective Lens, emphasized the importance of socio-emotional development on all other development, and as it relates to Affect Development areas of need on the Bull鈥檚 Eye Model, including Natural Affect, World Context, Meta-Affect and Personal Affect.

Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli established the University of Connecticut鈥檚 annual with Professor Sally Reis, with whom he is also a co-founder of the Joseph S. Renzulli Gifted and Talented Academy in Hartford, Connecticut. He received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Award for Innovation in Education, considered by many to be 鈥渢he Nobel鈥� for educators and was a consultant to the White House Task Force on Education of the Gifted and Talented. His presentation, A Curriculum Enrichment Infusion Process for Jazzing Up The Standards Driven Curriculum, introduced guiding steps to incorporate higher-level thinking skills, creativity training activities and application of skills into curricular content.

Sally M. Reis, Ph.D. holds the Letitia Neag Morgan Chair in Educational Psychology at the and is past-president of NAGC, co-director of Confratute, and former Vice Provost of Academic Affairs at University of Connecticut. Honored as a 2019 2e Hall of Fame inductee, her presentation, From Deficits to Strengths: Past and Present Turning Points on 2E Students and the Education They Deserve emphasized the need for presenting each individual with challenging learning that is strength-based, that enhances interests and task development, and that results in a positive reaction to challenges

Ann Smith is Executive Director of and serves as Past-President for the California Association for the Gifted, on the advisory board for the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, on the Editorial Board for the Gifted Education Communicator, on the Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee for the USC/US Department of Education Jacob Javits Grant, Project CHANGE, and on a Public Policy Committee for the Institute for Educational Advancement. is an interdisciplinary language arts curriculum created by Gifted Support Center that uses poetry and music to engage across disciplines for PreK through 8th-grade students. The Leave Your Sleep for Educational Project: How an interdisciplinary curriculum can help 2e learners be recognized for their gifts, introduced non-negotiable elements of an interdisciplinary language arts curriculum that is designed to provide opportunities for sustained engagement and talent development.

We look forward to incorporating many of the takeaways from these fantastic presentations into the programs at 优蜜视频. 

For more resources for 2e students,

The gifted brain is a unique place. In fact, it is so unique that many of the complexities of giftedness are still not fully understood. Still, there are some common quirks that have been identified as being associated with the gifted brain.

Overexcitabilities

Dambrowski identified that he believes are strongly connected to giftedness: intellectual, psychomotor, imaginative, sensual, and emotional. These overexcitabilities give gifted individuals some of their unique traits, but can also make it hard to function within a traditional classroom environment.

Psychologist Carrie Lynn Bailey noted in :

鈥�A challenge for gifted individuals is that they can often be viewed negatively, or pathologically, particularly in educational settings.鈥�

So how do you deal with a gifted child with overexcitabilities? An from the California Association of the Gifted suggests a combination of teaching stress management techniques, ensuring clear verbal and nonverbal communication skills and creating a comforting environment can help gifted children manage their overxcitabilites.

Social and Emotional Vulnerabilities

Many gifted children are .聽A passing comment that may seem harmless to you can be crushing to a gifted child, who could internalize and overanalyze it. Because of their high-sensitivity, gifted children often perceive others to have a , leading to social issues, such as interacting and bonding with their peers and teachers.

The article 鈥溾�� 聽highlights the extremes of gifted social and emotional issues. It notes that many gifted kids live in a world that doesn鈥檛 fully understand them, leading them to feel isolated and lonely. The author suggests gifted students should learn in environments that focus not just on their brains, but also the 鈥渇ragility of their hearts鈥�.

(Hoagie鈥檚 Gifted Education Page has a on the social and emotional lives of the gifted for further reading.)

Twice-Exceptional

Twice-exceptional children demonstrate both giftedness and a learning or emotional disability, making them the most under-identified group in today鈥檚 schools, according to the .聽These students are often forced between choosing programs that serve their giftedness or their disability. Consequently, they are often underserved.

This 鈥渜uirk鈥� of the gifted is often difficult to diagnose even by professionals. notes that even those in the gifted community have trouble imagining a gifted child with a learning disability. Luckily there is a growing awareness of 2e and, as a result, more resources available on serving these children.

If your child has been diagnosed as twice-exceptional or you expect they may be, the 2e Newsletter has some for serving 2e students.

Although we still don鈥檛 understand everything about the gifted brain, identifying the quirks and giving students, parents and teachers the tools to deal with them is a win-win for everyone.

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Nicole LaChance聽graduated from Michigan State University聽with聽a B.A. in Journalism before moving West in pursuit of milder winters.聽Prior to joining the 优蜜视频 team, she spent time working in marketing for an architecture firm and completed two years of national service in the AmeriCorps program. Over the past few years she has worked with聽nonprofits to聽communicate their message and impact to the world around them, work she is excited to continue at 优蜜视频. When not at the office, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling wherever she can and making bad puns.

This post is part of the .聽Please click the image below to keep on hopping!

In The Little Prince, the narrator describes a picture he drew as a child. He was rather proud of this drawing and was certain it would inspire fear in those who viewed it. When he revealed his masterpiece to the adults in his world, however, they were not afraid; all they saw was a simple drawing of a hat. The narrator was indignant: 鈥淢y drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.鈥� Upon offering an explanation of his piece, the narrator expressed his honest thoughts about grown-ups: 鈥淭hey never understand anything by themselves and it is exhausting for children to have to provide expectations over and over again.鈥�

Twice-exceptional (or 2E) children 鈥� those who are both gifted and have a learning disability 鈥� are often rendered exhausted as they try to explain how they think and learn to 鈥済rown-ups鈥�. What is going on inside of them may differ greatly from what other people, including their teachers, are able to see.

鈥淚 saw a very different child than the teacher was seeing.鈥� 鈥� 优蜜视频 Parent

Twice-exceptional students are seldom identified as gifted, as having a disability, or as twice-exceptional. Often the disability masks the giftedness, the giftedness masks the disability, or the giftedness and disability mask each other, preventing the rest of us from understanding the inner workings of these children.

Although 2E students were identified as a 鈥渄istinct鈥� group in 1977, data regarding the number of individuals in the group were not collected until 2000. It is now estimated that between 2 and 5% of gifted children have learning disabilities and that 2 to 5% of students with learning disabilities are gifted. The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act defines 2E as:

鈥淎 disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.鈥�

While each individual is vastly different from each other, this distinct group of learners are connected by their exceptional intellectual ability, discrepancy between ability and achievement, challenges in learning or processing, and the anxiety of being different.

Special programs exist for children with learning disabilities, and there are programs for gifted students, but few deal with both exceptions. Without services that celebrate a child鈥檚 gifts and talents, these students fall victim to low academic self-efficacy and issues regarding self-confidence.

鈥淣o one knows what I know!!! I see and hear the answers in my head, but I just can鈥檛 get them out onto paper. Everyone thinks I am a stupid kid that is 鈥榮low.鈥� But I get it 鈥� I get it all!!! I hate myself!鈥�

Once we see what is truly going on within a child, we must support and nurture all aspects of his or her needs. A child learns through success; supporting children鈥檚 gifts feeds them and provides them with energy and confidence to tackle their learning difficulties.

Addressing students鈥� disabilities is often seen as a more pressing need than nurturing their gifts, and it is easy to get caught up in needing to 鈥渇ix鈥� the disability. Though we do need to support these children and help them work with and through their disabilities, we must not lose sight of their incredible intellectual capacity. We should still provide them with advanced curriculum by allowing for modifications that keep any weaknesses in mind.

A gifted child鈥檚 self-concept improves when we help him or her nurture all aspects of self 鈥� intellectual, spiritual, social, emotional, and physical 鈥� in a safe, nurturing environment surrounded by like-minded peers. Feeding the intellect of the twice-exceptional child is the best way to begin the process of personal growth. Knowing and celebrating our possibilities 鈥� as well as our limits 鈥� helps us to lead a life of purpose, passion, and wisdom.

Twice-exceptional children are not broken. We do not need to fix them. Instead, we need to help them understand both their strengths and their weaknesses, nurture their gifts, and help them find ways to succeed and grow. But before we can do this, we must truly see them for who they are.

鈥淎nd now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.鈥澛�– Antoine de Saint-Exup茅ry,聽The Little Prince

It is so incredibly important that we look at the whole child and truly understand what is going on so that we can support and nurture the growth of these wonderful individuals.

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I love . Whenever I need a break from my day-to-day routine, I watch a TEDTalk and lose myself in the brilliance of people and their ideas.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with TEDTalks, let me give you a brief overview of TED. TED is a private, nonprofit organization that was founded in 1984, with the objective of hosting an annual conference on Technology, Entertainment, and Design鈥攈ence the acronym, TED.

Since then, TED has grown; it now hosts global conferences and events throughout the year and has expanded its scope to include leaders from various fields and disciplines, such as medicine, education, economics, anthropology, and music. At these conferences, notable speakers like Jane Goodall, Bill Gates, and Nobel Prize winners confront audiences with issues, ideas, and phenomena that seek to inspire passion and curiosity.

TED鈥檚 goal is simple: To spread ideas. According to its mission statement, 鈥淲e believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.鈥� Thus, TED decided to release and post its 鈥渢alks鈥� online, making them free and accessible to our global community of learners. Since launching its website in 2007, TED has posted 1,356 videos online, which have been viewed almost 1 billion times worldwide.

With so many talks readily available, my efforts of selecting only five videos proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated. But for your viewing pleasure, here are my top five most powerful, informative, and stimulating TEDTalks for parents of gifted children. Enjoy!

5.
In her discussion, writer Susan Cain speaks about introversion and questions why it is undervalued in our society. She calls for a celebration of introverted-ness and offers three suggestions for changing the ways we view introversion.

Favorite quote: 鈥淭here’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.鈥�

4.
Professor of education Sugata Mitra describes his global 鈥淗ole in the Wall鈥� experiments, where children are given access to computers and the Internet. Through these experiments, Mitra illustrates how, when given the resources, groups of children learn from each other and become 鈥渟elf-organizing systems.鈥�

Favorite quote: 鈥淐hildren will learn to do what they want to learn to do.鈥�

3.
In this inspirational video, then twelve-year-old child prodigy Adora Svitak asks her adult audience to reexamine the ways they view children as 鈥渋rrational鈥� and 鈥渋rresponsible鈥� beings. Rather, children should be acknowledged and valued for their abilities to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow.

Favorite quote: 鈥淟earning between grown-ups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it.鈥�

2.
In this 20-minute talk, Temple Grandin demonstrates how autistic minds process information and urges us to nurture these varied ways of thinking as resources in our twice-exceptional youth.

Favorite quote: 鈥淣ow the thing is, the world is going to need all of the different kinds of minds to work together. We鈥檝e got to work on developing all these different kinds of minds.鈥�

1.

In this comical but informative discussion, Ken Robinson examines our education system in relation to creativity. Like Adora Svitak, he stresses that children have amazing capabilities and 鈥渃apacities for innovation.鈥� However, Robinson argues that creativity is being squandered in our classrooms, where academic abilities are placed at a higher premium than other types of intelligences.

Favorite quote: 鈥淢y contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.鈥�

Do you have a favorite TEDTalk? Share your favorite in the comment section below!

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