Twice-exceptionality can be challenging to spot! A twice-exceptional child’s gifts may mask their disability, or alternatively their disability may hide their intellectual potential. As a general rule, twice-exceptionality is defined by its ‘spiky’ profile – that is to say, students will be extraordinarily advanced for their age in some areas, and considerably behind their peers in others.
It’s not uncommon for a neuropsychologist to be unable to give a twice-exceptional person an official IQ score due to the discrepancies between their subtest results!
A number of neurodivergent conditions – ADHD, anxiety and dyspraxia among them – mean that students can express themselves much better in words than they can on paper. The child’s understanding is excellent, but trying to express it in a more formal fashion, in timed conditions, or through the act of writing can be challenging due to their disability. Tutoring can help students to develop the strategies and confidence that they need to become better at showcasing their true ability in assessment tasks.
On the other hand, a twice-exceptional student who appears to be daydreaming or doesn’t say anything in class may unexpectedly ace the test – teachers may not have thought they were interested or paying attention, but focus can look different in twice-exceptional students, and many schools benefit from professional learning to better understand how to identify and support these unique young people, as it is not a compulsory part of initial teacher education.
Alternatively, some twice-exceptional students are so bright that they can do well without paying attention!
If you have a child who’s racing through novels aimed at young adults while their peers are still learning to read, but has lost more lunchboxes than any other child in their class by a considerable margin, this could well be a sign that they are 2e.
These areas of challenge are often in executive function or emotional regulation, but can also include different academic subjects – for example, academically gifted dyslexic students may be phenomenal at Maths or Science but have great difficulty in more writing-heavy subjects like English or History.
Twice-exceptional students don’t lack ability, but they can find it more challenging than their neurotypical peers to show this in assessment tasks or in the classroom. Educational facilities are full of what teachers often call the ‘hidden curriculum’ – that is, the implicit set of social expectations around how to ‘do school’, like sitting still and quietly, taking notes, organising and prioritising homework tasks, showing working out, how to write an essay etc., which 2e kids can find far more difficult to follow than their peers.
Twice-exceptional students often use their intelligence to hide or ‘mask’ the effects of their disability, which can be exhausting. Sometimes this presents as ‘perfect’ behaviour at school – no calling out or interrupting, all tasks completed on time, no or minimal behavioural issues – and regular meltdowns at home. The child is so focused on being ‘good’ at school that they don’t have anything left in the tank at 3pm.
A supportive school environment can help to temper this by allowing students supports such as time-out cards, rest or movement breaks, fidgets or headphones in class, or even a reduced timetable, alleviating some of the stressors during the day so that the child isn’t completely exhausted by the time they get home.
Twice-exceptional students, especially those with autism or ADHD, often have highly ‘interest-based’ minds. For this reason, they may have an encyclopaedic knowledge of a particular subject, but have trouble understanding or learning about things that they aren’t interested in. This is not a sign of ‘laziness’ or ‘not paying attention’– it’s simply that their learning works differently to neurotypical people’s, and they are less able to deliberately direct their focus.
Baum’s Suite of Tools is considered best practice to help these students develop their interests and talents while supporting them to develop necessary skills in areas of weakness.
Because of their superior intelligence, 2e students are often hyper-aware of their difference from other students, especially if they struggle socially. However, they’re not always aware of why this is, and as such may reason that they are not performing as well as their neurotypical peers because they’re ‘lazy’ or ‘don’t apply themselves’.
Hard work doesn’t always or consistently translate into academic success for these kids, and it’s particularly common for their grades to drop considerably as they move further along in their schooling, as the heightened cognitive demands mean that their usual coping strategies may no longer work, or simply that they don’t have the time or energy to apply them as well or as frequently as they used to.
Twice-exceptional young people with anxiety or depression, or perfectionistic tendencies as can be seen in autism or OCD, can be particularly affected, fixating on their ‘failures’ more than their academic successes.
Especially for students whose identity is tied in some way to being smart, this can be emotionally devastating. Helping 2e youngsters to develop a sense of disability pride — understanding that their neurodivergence comes with both benefits and challenges – and to learn to advocate for themselves can be vital to their long-term success.
It’s important to note that only a neuropsychologist can formally diagnose a young person as gifted, neurodivergent, or twice-exceptional. However, if you are seeing some of the signs above in your child, they could well be 2e, and this may warrant further investigation. If you’re unsure about next steps, or what your options are, I’d love to help – book a free 15-minute phone consultation today to see if Exceptional Like Me is right for your family.
Exceptional Like Me, led by Dr. Olivia Evans, provides specialised, neuroaffirming support for gifted and twice-exceptionality (2e) individuals. Combining elite academic qualifications with her own lived experience, Dr. Evans offers a unique strengths-based approach through educational consulting, neurodivergent coaching, and specialised tutoring.