Are you considering a private school for your 2e child? Join REEL members Abby Kirigin, Carmen O'Shea, and Callie Turk - three parents of 2e kids that have experienced a dozen Bay Area K-12 schools firsthand and researched 30+ more. Learn about the various foci of local private, public, and charter schools as well as the tradeoffs of each for 2e kids. Ask questions and get answers from the parent perspective.

Social skills and social anxiety rank as a top concern for parents of 2e learners. Parents worry their child doesn’t have enough friends, doesn’t attend enough social events, or only engages socially online.

Writing almost always tops the list of challenges for all types of 2e learners, who have both high ability and potential as well as complex challenges such as specific learning disabilities (e.g. dyslexia), autism, ADHD, and anxiety. Parents and educators need tips to help these students experience success with writing. Renowned 2e expert Dr. Susan Baum joined REEL for a creative and pragmatic discussion on ways to support writing development for 2e learners.

Understanding and getting support for 2e learners can be complicated. The public education system is sometimes unwieldy and confusing. When parents suspect their child’s challenges (academic and/or social-emotional) may stem from an as yet undiscovered diagnosis, they often don't know how to start the process of requesting accommodations, assessments, and services. As a result, parents frequently do not leverage the resources of their public schools, which can lead to delays

In this uplifting workshop, Abby Kirigin shares how to help neurodivergent students thrive by celebrating their unique brains. She offers strategies to build confidence and self-efficacy, separate content goals from expression challenges, and integrate strength-based learning into daily life—all to help students re-engage, shine, and face challenges with renewed energy.

The workshop explains the strengths and struggles of twice-exceptional (2e) learners, who have distinguishing strengths and learning differences such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. The recording includes top tips for supporting 2e learners' needs and vignettes of actual student scenarios.

What does it mean to be an adult? How is the transition to adulthood addressed in neurodivergent populations? Presented by a neurodivergent educator, we will explore the social and emotional elements of this transition and how we can better support our students and children through this process.

students should develop. 2e kids often lose self-esteem when they aren’t able to learn the way the classroom or assignments are organized. Students gain confidence with the success that comes with having their environment or assignments adjusted so they can access their learning abilities. Explore the prerequisites to self-advocacy, discover how to help students understand what their brain needs to succeed at school, learn specific developmentally-appropriate techniques to tr

Dr. Melanie Hayes of Big Minds School discusses strength-based learning for 2e students, emphasizing focusing on strengths rather than just weaknesses. Strengths energize 2e kids, boost self-esteem, and guide future careers. Her Big Minds Unschool methods show how to integrate this approach anywhere. Parents can support strengths at home and in class to increase motivation, address challenges, and heal school trauma. Strength-based learning is key to 2e education.

a roadmap of how to sort through the incredible array of available resources for neuro-assessments, OT, speech, academic support, gender diversity, and more. They walked through real life scenarios, including how to decide what to do first, what to do if you have time but no money or money but no time, and how to navigate private and public schools.

Twice exceptional, or 2e, students have both high ability and potential as well as complex challenges such as learning differences, autism, ADHD, and anxiety. Dr. Lisa White of Summit Center, Abby Kirigin of REEL, and Carmen O’Shea of Parent Resource Advisors, discussed the signs it's time to make a change, the process of finding a right-fit school for your 2e child, and the application process.

girls are commonly overlooked, undiagnosed, or misdiagnosed when it comes to learning differences such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia? Join us to learn what the research says about this phenomena, its impact on K12 education, and what career paths might work best to better address the needs of neurodivergent females

REEL recently hosted a private school panel featuring three parents, Abby Kirigin, Carmen O’Shea, and Callie Turk, who shared their...

REEL recently hosted a private school panel featuring three parents, Abby Kirigin, Carmen O’Shea, and Callie Turk, who shared their...

REEL recently hosted a private school panel featuring three parents, Abby Kirigin, Carmen O’Shea, and Callie Turk, who shared their...

REEL hosted an inspirational Q&A session to honor Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2022 with founder Siena Castellon. Learn about her experiences at school and life and why she created this special week to honor the neurodivergent.

Students who are twice-exceptional (2e) have tremendous intellectual gifts alongside a wide range of possible learning challenges — attention differences, slow processing speed, social immaturity, and/or weak executive function skills, just to name a few of the possibilities.

an interactive overview of 2e - what it is, why it matters, and effective approaches for supporting 2e learners. 2e students experience both high ability and learning challenges, which presents unique challenges in the classroom, including asynchronous development that may lead to anxiety and behavior issues. Explore strategies to help your child thrive at school.

In this workshop we will consider the goals and benefits of creating a student one sheet, the do’s and don’t of an effective document, and when and how to support student self-advocacy by involving the student in the process of writing and distributing their own one sheet.

a discussion about strength-based learning. When kids are far from the bell curve in both directions, parents and educators tend to focus on shoring up weaknesses at the expense of bolstering strengths. However, strengths are where 2e kids build energy to face their challenges, boost their self-esteem, and their likely future careers will lie.