Meet Caleb. He’s gifted, with extremely high verbal comprehension, while at the same time, his dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD means he struggles to read, write, and act like everyone else. This results in an interesting mix - he is fiercely independent, creative, and inquisitive. He’s always coming at things from a different angle, and putting disparate things together - both physical things and abstract concepts. He loves to think, talk, and make connections, but resists put

When Autism Doesn’t Explain Everything When my son was two, he was only using a handful of words and had only begun walking at 18 months. Because he had more than one delay, we were encouraged to have him evaluated. The diagnosis at the time was PDD-NOS, which was later updated to autism. But that diagnosis didn’t explain everything I was seeing. It didn’t explain how he spelled the word airplane in foam letters on the bathtub wall at age two, or how when I told him there was

Wondering if your child is 2e? Discover early signs of twice-exceptionality—gifted but struggling in school, social, or emotional areas—with guidance for parents.

As featured in Bay Area Parent Magazine (page 20-21) Here are our top tips for parenting neurodivergent and twice-exceptional learners for school success. 1. Learn more about neurodiversity. Deepen your understanding of how different brains learn and process the world. The more you know, the better you can advocate for and support your child’s unique strengths. Start with this 2e Checklist . 2. Be curious and empathetic. Your child isn’t giving you a hard time. They’re havin

REEL has been hosting expert speakers for our parent community since 2019. Recently, we collected the recordings of six or our talks, and...

Assessments and services can frequently be cost-prohibitive. At REEL, we are frequently asked about free or low-cost options that don’t break the bank. *Please note! This is not a comprehensive list, but a collection of recommendations by our community. These resources have not been vetted by the REEL team. Everyone will have their own experiences, we urge you to use this list only as a starting point. Please email us if you have more ideas to add. Get a special education as

“Preach! Write! Act! Do anything save to lie down and die!” - Hester, in the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Focus on what's there, not what's missing I come from a product design background. In graduate school we were taught that after we had a test subject use our product, we should ask them first ‘what are the worst three things about it?’ right away, before they said anything else. We did this because people are reluctant to criticize something they think you made,

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” - Rainer Maria Rilke Welcome to Part 2 of this 3-part series on...

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.” - Henry David Thoreau You’ve just gotten the ‘official’...

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.

Listen to this podcast with Children's Health Council. (35 mins) Parenting is never easy, but raising a child with exceptional talents...

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

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.

By Jenna Segall, 5th Grade Teacher, Palo Verde Elementary School, Palo Alto (Check out REEL's list of suggested books for all grades...