REEL recently hosted a private school panel featuring three parents, Abby Kirigin, Carmen O’Shea, and Callie Turk, who shared their journeys to find a good educational fit for their twice-exceptional (2e) children and families. The event also featured new resources from REEL on private schools in Silicon Valley. We present below the third of three blog posts that summarize the key takeaways from the session. The first blog post offered advice on key considerations when thinking about private schools for your 2e learner while the second blog post covered admissions process tips. ************************************************************ In preparation for REEL’s recent 2e private school panel, we compiled a list of Silicon Valley private schools with some topline information about what these schools focus on—gifted, 2e, learning differences, grade levels. You can review the list and suggest additions to it: https://tinyurl.com/REELPrivateSchoolsList . One attendee shared, “We consulted with a leading psychologist focused on 2e kids, and he said our kids are so unique there is not a perfect school, we need to focus on the least bad school option and supplement in areas that the school is not able to support.” Some parents mentioned they try to optimize their school choice based on the factors that are hardest for them to address at home. For example, they may select the school that best supports their child’s social skills, while opting to provide advanced math opportunities at home. Callie observed, “If there were a perfect solution for 2e kids in Silicon Valley, we would have told you in this session. So, as you go through the list of local schools, remember that this process really is about the fit for your family and balancing all the factors that you face.” Callie also highlighted the dedicated 2e schools across the country, many of which offer virtual options on an ongoing basis, noting, “I would look at those schools that offer remote options because they’re probably better set up to support 2e learners, and, in some cases, also explicitly designed for virtual learning.” It might surprise families that many Silicon Valley schools are unfamiliar with 2e or don’t specifically serve 2e students. 2e is a relatively new term to a lot of people, including educators. In fact, it is more common to find schools designed for twice-exceptional students in the East Bay. Additionally, some of the schools that you might expect to support 2e students, like those for the “gifted”, may not have the expertise on staff to address children’s learning differences. In preparation for the panel, Callie spoke with admissions directors from several local schools for gifted learners; all of them shared that they are not specifically set up for 2e learners. They do have 2e students because, inevitably, if you are a school that serves gifted students, you will have some 2e students. But it’s all about the fit between that child, that family and that school. All of these schools that serve gifted students encourage anyone who thinks that the school might be a good option for their child to reach out, as they evaluate children on a case by case basis. The panelists also recommended several resources to help Bay Area parents sort through their school decisions: Gifted Support Center (San Mateo) Parent Resource Advisors (Menlo Park) Tilt Parenting School Listings Teresa Nai r - thnairEd@gmail.com - works with families to chart an educational strategy (private, public, charter, home, virtual, alternative) REEL Google Group Email List (Post questions about schools to this group of 2e parents) Abby, Carmen, and Callie’s children have attended many schools, including Trinity School, Tru School, Encinal Elementary School, Synapse, Woodland School, Touchstone Learning, Helios, Woodside Priory, and Mid-Peninsula High School. They and many other REEL parents have explored and applied to many others. Please email hello@reel2e.org to learn more about parents’ personal perspectives on specific schools, recognizing that each parent and family will have a unique viewpoint based on their needs and experiences. In the end, whether you decide on public school, private school, virtual school, home school, or something in between, there are many options. The goal is to find a place where your unique child can thrive and grow. As Callie shared, “My daughter went from being someone who was a little bit of a problem, who didn’t want to get up in the morning, to being someone who got up every day and loved going to school.” We hope you find the educational option that helps your child get up and go!

TL;DR Parents of 2e learners often have trouble finding an ideal learning environment for their child. Should you stay in public school, try private school, homeschool, or try a unique school format? The answer is: It depends! On October 8, 2024, we heard from a panel of four parents about their experiences weighing school options for their children; each has 2e children who have attended various public, private, and home schools through the years. Local schools consultant, Lauren Meltzer, discussed client experiences and school search recommendations. We learned about the pros and cons of various learning environments, the signs it’s time to make a change, and the process of finding a good-fit school for your 2e learner.  A Framework for Fit Abby Kirigin, REEL’s executive director, kicked off the event by reviewing the DEAR REEL model , which provides a framework to explore whether a school may be a strong fit for your 2e learner. She provided specific questions from REEL’s recent article in Parenting for High Potential  to consider when looking at what a school offers in the context of developing connections, embracing flexibility, attending to strengths, and reframing behaviors. Check out the article  for all the details. The parent panelists then shared stories of their children’s paths through K-12 schools.  Lessons Learned through Breaking Points One parent shared the story of her two autistic ADHD sons and the twists and turns their education journey has taken. Each attended public school for a number of years, but their success hinged on a lot of parental involvement. Each faced a mental health breaking point: the oldest when he transitioned to a very large middle school, and the younger when he was placed in a situation with a poor fit between him and his teacher, principal, and the school campus. Both sons transitioned to a small, private, project based school where they thrived. One of the highlights of this new school is that it serves students in grades K-8, which she noted, “Keeps the environment young. They still have recess. Plus, the school provided great flexibility—the kids can walk around and pace to think.” However, she also observed that a less structured environment can feel chaotic to kids when they first transition from a traditional setting to a more open culture. Her older son recently chose a small but more traditional private high school. Unfortunately, this led to a second crisis when the school did not show understanding of neurodivergence or assignment flexibility. He is now at a 1:1 school. Each instance of pulling out required months of low-demand recovery time.  Based on her family’s experiences, she highlighted these lessons learned: You can make some environments work if you are able to invest a lot of time/resources and schools listen to you and are willing to experiment Trust your gut when it’s time to make a change; don’t be afraid to step off the “well worn path”  Environments may work for a time; but, as needs change, the environment may need to change There isn’t one school that will meet all of your child’s needs–prioritize what you need the school to provide vs what you can supplement outside of school The same school may not fit all of your children Be a good partner to your school Teach your child to self-advocate Try not to ride their emotional roller coaster (easier said than done!) Integrate strengths as much as possible into schools and at home Every Child is Different Another parent shared her experiences navigating the education system for her three children, who are all profoundly gifted; have ADHD, dyslexia/dysgraphia; and  are highly social. They each had unique school pathways. Her oldest spent the majority of his early grade years at a school for gifted and creative children, then homeschooled in 8th grade while the family traveled for a year. Her middle child moved from this same school to attend dyslexic specialized private schools, and is now at a traditional private high school with strong support systems. And then her youngest child has been at the same private school with an active learning support team since kindergarten. She emphasized, “Even if your children have the same profile, see your kids for who they are.”    Looking back on all her family has learned, she discussed the challenges of transitioning her children from one school to another, emphasizing the importance of finding schools that provide on-site resources and support, because “These kids are maxed out after a day at school, so I work hard not to have a lot happen after school. I want it to happen onsite.” She also highlighted the significance of living close to the school (“Driving around is a lot on parents and students”) and not underestimating the impact of missing milestones, such as graduations, if you pull a child out of a school earlier than you planned. Lastly, she stressed the importance of finding a supportive community of parents with twice-exceptional children. Her family had an unfortunate experience with her oldest child’s charter highschool; it imploded and her son had to finish out high school unexpectedly at a 1:1 school. The good news is he took a gap year to make a documentary in Kenya and is now thriving at film school in Southern California. When Homeschooling Works Out Despite the fact that “Homeschooling was not on my radar or agenda,” our final parent discussed her son's struggles in traditional public school and how they transitioned to homeschooling/online-schooling —and how surprised she is that they are “having a great go of it!”. She highlighted the benefits of their current online program, which offers a project-based, collaborative learning environment and provides support for her son’s ADHD and dysgraphia. She also mentioned that they use a public home school charter school (Ocean Grove) that provides IEP services for her son as well as accountability.  The mom discussed her son's experience with online schooling, highlighting the benefits of flexibility and interest-based learning. He wanted her to share that “I love learning this way. I’m able to dive deep into topics that interest me.” She noted the development of his executive functioning skills and intrinsic motivation, as well as his ability to take breaks and manage his time effectively. On the flip side, she also mentioned the challenges of balancing career and family life, and the need for intentional social connections.  She concluded by sharing her son's preference for home schooling, how it gave him his light back, and the possibility of transitioning back to an in-person environment for high school. She shared, “He’s a different child. He’s in a calm state. He had a lot of trauma before. It’s so good to have him back.”  Based on their experience, this mom recommended considering alternative environments for children who may not thrive in traditional settings. She said “There’s never one perfect environment. Even with homeschooling, we’re always adjusting every year. If you go this route, you have to make the leap on what we’ve been conditioned to think school looks like. It’s been an unexpectedly wonderful experience for our family.”  Think Outside the “Box” Our session closed with a presentation from local parent coach and school consultant for neurodivergent children, Lauren Meltzer . She shared her own experiences working with neurodivergent/2e children and their families, and emphasized the importance of understanding their unique needs and finding the right fit for them, rather than focusing on a specific school. Lauren encouraged parents to think outside the box and explore different options for their children's education, with options such as schools for twice exceptional children, gifted children, micro schools, 1:1 schools, online schools, and those with specific learning supports. Lauren stressed the importance of understanding the school's approach to the twice-exceptional profile by asking questions about things like classroom management, group work, sensory needs, the availability of support resources, and flexibility for the child's style. Lauren emphasized the need for research and networking with like-minded parents, and suggested visiting schools to get a firsthand experience. She mentioned that, in her own journey, she visited schools at drop off and pick up times to see their culture in action, including how families and educators interacted. In addition to checking if there are kids who might be a good social fit, she underscored the significance of a supportive parent community that embraces all kinds of kids. She noted, “I can’t emphasize how important the parent community is…if other parents have a ‘less than’ attitude about these kids, it will impact everything.”  Lauren highlighted the need for open communication with schools about a child's challenges and the importance of considering both their strengths and needs when considering a change in schools. She observed, “If a kid can never show their best self through strengths at school, it will be hard for them and they probably won’t find their people.” She suggests focusing on describing behaviors/needs rather than diagnoses if preferred. Lauren also discussed the challenges of applying for children with “behavioral challenges.” Many schools don’t accept children with externalizing behaviors, so it’s important to explain how you as a family work to address challenges and/or whether you feel they will not present in a “better fit” environment. There are schools who do accept children who struggle with externalizing behaviors and will work with the child on relevant skills and strategies. Lauren also suggested applying for financial aid for private schools, because people in the Bay Area can often qualify even with good salaries. She advised parents to be authentic and friendly during the application process. Wrapping Up Finding a good fit educational environment for a 2e learner can be tough - but when the child has the chance to be in a space where they can be more content and safe to learn, it’s a magical experience for everyone. If you would like more resources to help you on the journey, check out these options from REEL’s past private school panels. REEL 2e School’s List   REEL 1:1 School Consultation Lauren Meltzer School Consultant - Parent Resource Advisors , ​​pra4parents@gmail.com How to Evaluate Schools for Twice-Exceptional Learners: The DEAR REEL Model 4th Private School Panel notes  (2023) 3rd Private School Panel notes  (2022) 2nd Private School Panel notes  (2021) 1st Private School Panel notes  (2020) ----- TL;DR Understanding 2e Learners' Needs 2e children have both gifted abilities and learning challenges May struggle in traditional school environments not designed for their unique profiles Need environments that support both their strengths and areas of difficulty Social-emotional needs and feeling safe/accepted are crucial foundations School Selection Considerations Look for schools that truly understand and can support 2e learners Consider factors like class size, teaching style, available accommodations Evaluate fit for child's specific learning profile, interests, and social needs Be open to non-traditional options (e.g. homeschooling, online programs) Reassess fit regularly as child's needs may change over time Navigating the Application Process Be upfront about child's needs/challenges to ensure school can provide proper support Focus on describing behaviors/needs rather than diagnoses if preferred Highlight child's strengths and what they can contribute to the school community Ask detailed questions about 2e support, accommodations, teaching approaches Supporting 2e Children Through School Transitions Involve child in decision-making process, especially for older students Use shadow days or meetings with current students to explore options Frame as opportunity to find better fit rather than failure of current school Be prepared to make multiple transitions as needs change Supplementing School Experience May need to provide additional support outside of school (e.g. tutoring, therapies) Look for ways to nurture strengths and interests if not fully supported at school Build in opportunities for social connections if lacking at school Next Steps Evaluate current school fit using provided criteria and questions Research alternative school options in your area that may better support 2e learners Consider consulting with 2e education specialists for personalized guidance Connect with other 2e parents through organizations like REEL for support and advice

Ever wonder why your brilliant child struggles with seemingly simple tasks? If you're a parent of a twice-exceptional (2e) child, you know this feeling well. It's a common question in our community, and the answer often lies in executive function overwhelm. It's not about "dumbing things down" for 2e kids; it's about finding an accessible "way in" that aligns with how their unique brain operates. This video dives into the power of scaffolding – not as a crutch, but as a bridge that connects your child's strengths to challenging tasks. We illustrate this with a common morning routine struggle and show how identifying executive function challenges (like working memory and task initiation) and leveraging strengths (like being highly visual and thriving with autonomy) can lead to breakthroughs. Learn how a simple visual checklist can shift dynamics, build confidence, and foster independence. Ready to try this at home? Download our "Can We Figure Out a Different Way?" worksheet to identify a repeatable challenge, examine it through an executive function lens, and brainstorm strength-based solutions. You might be amazed at how quickly the tone can shift when the support truly fits your child. Get your worksheet here: https://www.reel2e.org/post/ef-tasks-can-we-figure-out-a-different-way Find more resources and join our community at REEL: www.reel2e.org Expand to See Transcript Hi! I'm Teresa from REEL. If you've ever found yourself asking or thinking "they're clearly smart, so why is this so hard for them?", you're not alone. This question comes up all the time in our small group discussions and within the community of parents of twice exceptional kids. And often the answer might involve executive function overwhelm. The answer isn't about ability. It 's about accessibility. 2e kids don't usually need things dumbed down. They need a different way in. They need a path that actually works for how their brain operates. That's where scaffolding comes in. Not to rescue or replace effort, but to build a bridge, something that connects the tasks and the child's strengths. In our workshops, we talk about what that can look like in everyday life, and we created the Can We Figure Out a Different Way, worksheet , to help with this process. Here's an example. A parent shares with us that their child could talk all day about their favorite animals, build incredible Lego models from memory and more. But every morning getting out the door was a complete battle. The routine was the same every day: get dressed, brush teeth, pack bag. But it never happened without reminders, arguments, and running late. Together, we looked at what executive function challenges or struggles were at play and seemed to be holding the child back. First, we decided to focus on working memory. This child couldn't hold on to all the steps, especially when there were distractions. Second, task initiation. Starting the 1st step often seemed to feel overwhelming, especially without structure. But we also looked at the child's strengths. They're highly visual and loved making signs, drawings, and comic strips, and they thrive given autonomy. And this is when they get to decide about the tasks and their order, it helps them feel confident and in control. So we brainstormed, stormed scaffolds built on those strengths. They created a visual checklist of their morning steps, with drawings that they made themselves, one drawing per task. Each task was a magnet, and every morning they chose the order, giving them control over the sequence without changing the goals. And eventually the parent will only ask once, what's your 1st magnet today? However, depending on your child and the situation, parental support and scaffolding may need to gradually be removed over time. That simple scaffold, visual, flexible strength base can completely shift the dynamic. The child can start initiating their own, and the chaos can drop, and they may feel more confident and independent. And that's what scaffolding can do. Not just help the child complete the task, but help them feel capable of doing it. So if you'd like to try this at home, download the Can We Figure Out a Different Way worksheet. Think of one frustrating moment in the day. Not the biggest one, just a small, repeatable challenge and keep it simple. Use the worksheet to look at it through the lens of executive functioning challenges and struggles along with your child's strengths. You might be surprised at how quickly the tone can shift when the support fits your child. It 's not just supporting executive functioning. We're building confidence, connection, and momentum. Don't forget there are many more resources at REEL and join our community to brainstorm more. You 're not alone on this journey. Thanks for joining us. Read more about this topic EF Tasks: Can We Figure Out a Different Way? Executive Function in 2e Learners Strengths and EF Struggles 2e Map 2e Executive Function Vocab and Focus Areas Cheat Sheet Strength Based Scaffolding for Executive Function Skills

REEL and the Landmark College Bay Area Success Center co-hosted an online event for Bay Area college counselors to learn top tips for supporting neurodivergent students through the college search and selection process. Success Center Executive Director Sandra Fishler set the context for the discussion. REEL Co-Founder Callie Turk shared the parent perspective. Landmark College students Daniel and Talia shared their personal experiences. See the transcript here: Callie Turk: Welcome to our conversation today about neurodiversity in college and tips for effectively supporting uniquely wired students and learners. My name is Callie Turk. I'm the co-founder and board chair of a nonprofit organization, REEL. I'm so excited to be joined today by colleagues from Landmark College Success Center and Landmark College, who will be talking to you about this important topic. We'll be sharing Sandra's perspective as the leader of the Success Center about helping kids be ready for college and just a lot of great background information on neurodivergent learners. Then, I'll be sharing the parent perspective. Daniel and Talia will be here to share the student perspective and also here to answer questions along the way. What we're going to do is go through just this little welcome here, and I will tell you a little bit about how this came to be. Then, we will have Sandra talk about traversing the college search. I'll do the parent perspective. Then, we'll have the student perspective, then open Q&A. Please just put your questions in the chat. We'll be monitoring that as we go through, probably saving most of the questions till the end, unless it's something we really need to address urgently right away. We do have some pre-submitted questions that were really great, so appreciate everyone for the thought you put into this. Just to give you a little background about who REEL is and why we wanted to host this session with our friends from Landmark Success Center: We are a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit. We really support families and educators of both neurodivergent and twice-exceptional learners and help them thrive in school by raising both their family's awareness and their educators' awareness of how to work with them, using research-based strategies and programming. For educators, we're providing resources, workshops, and all kinds of programs so that twice-exceptional learners and neurodivergent learners can be successful. With families, we are providing support groups and organizing and disseminating events and tools to help parents really help their kids. This whole session came out of an educator engagement that we had with a school in San Francisco that was really putting a year-long emphasis on doing a better job of supporting their neurodivergent learners. When we were talking to them about the kind of work we could do, they were mentioning that their college counselor, in particular, had been looking for resources to do a better job supporting neurodiversity but wasn't really having a lot of luck finding what they were looking for. I thought, "Well, we could do something about that." So, if we can do something about that, let's do something about that. Let's get some more information out to college counselors in Silicon Valley so that they can be supporting their neurodivergent students in this process. I couldn't think of anyone better to partner with on that than Sandra from The Landmark Success Center. She'll be talking more about what they do, but they are really working all the time with kids who are on this journey and their families. They're seeing it from that perspective, as well as being part of a college that supports students who are neurodivergent. She just has such an immense set of wisdom to share about this process. I reached out and said, "Let's do it," and she said, "Yes, let's," and so here we are today. Some of you may be wondering—I keep using this term twice-exceptional , and you may not be familiar with that term. We like to use anytime we have a chance to talk to educators just to expand awareness of twice-exceptionality. Sandra is going to talk a lot about what neurodiversity means. Within neurodiversity, there's a profile of a learner that has both distinguishing strengths and complex challenges. They may have been identified as being dyslexic or having ADHD or being autistic. They may not have been identified as those things yet. Very often, they are misidentified or not identified because they may also have some distinguishing strengths—some high ability or potential in one or more areas. They may know everything about World War II, be able to write amazing poetry. They may be ahead grade level in reading, but they can't write anything. So, they're very complicated students because everyone is expecting them to be able to do a lot more academically than they may actually be able to perform. Sometimes, those distinguishing strengths and complex challenges mask each other, and they combine and interact in very different ways, making them very unique learners and often some of our most confusing, perplexing kids. But many of them would like to go to college and have opportunities to pursue education in their areas of interest. We want to make sure that nothing holds them back. So, we don't want any neurodivergent student to ever be held back from what they want to do in their lives. We like to just make sure people know that there are these twice-exceptional kids out there who may not have been identified yet as having a learning difference or may have been identified as having a learning difference but haven't been seen for their full strengths. That's sort of what we mean by twice-exceptional . I've already explained to you why this session, and I'm going to hand it over to our friend Sandra from The Landmark Success Center, who is going to give us an overview of neurodivergence. Sandra Fishler: Thanks so much, Callie. It's really a pleasure to be here today, collaborating, of course, with the REAL 2E team and Landmark College Success Center. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen now. I do have some thoughts to share with you today. All right. I think Callie mentioned this before, but once again, we're here today to discuss traversing the college search—what might that look like? Again, it's a pleasure to be here today with Callie and the other participants from Landmark College. These are current students who are going to share their journey with us. My name again is Sandra Fishler. I'm the Landmark College Success Center Director. I'll tell you a little about Landmark College for some of you who may not know. For some of you, it might already be review, but Landmark College has been around about 40 years, educating students who are neurodivergent and doing it quite well. We are in our 40th year this year and celebrating an anniversary. About four and a half years ago, they decided they wanted to have some representation here on the West Coast post. So, The Landmark College Success Center was born out of that concept. We have a team of learning specialists who provide executive function coaching, academic support, college-level reading and writing skills, transition skill-building, skills to and through college, as well as social pragmatics workshops through the PEERS Concepts and curriculum. PEERS standing for the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills. Here's my contact information if anybody needs to reach me—please feel free to contact me. As Callie mentioned, you'll get a copy of this presentation. We'll start off with a quote from Albert Einstein. He shares that, "Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." My guess is that you probably have a couple students feeling a lot like a fish trying to climb a tree when they think about entering this college search process. Let's go over a couple terms first. The first being neurotypical . This is what society may consider neurotypical—as being the typical brain development with cognitive and intellectual functioning associated with thinking, behaving, and processing information. Neurodivergent is what society may consider atypical brain development, cognitive functioning—an individual diagnosed with dyslexia or dyscalculia or ADHD or those 2E individuals that Callie was mentioning earlier. What is neurodiversity ? Neurodiversity is all of us. All brains function differently. This diversity, of course, is natural and beneficial to us as the human species. These differences should be accepted and viewed not as something that needs to be fixed but rather something embraced. Changing the conversation to help our students recognize and acknowledge those strengths is the beginning of the process to heading off to college. Let's put this into context. What are the prevalence of students with learning differences? You all work with students of all different abilities, so you probably know this quite well. One in five students have a learning difference, as reported by the National Center for Learning Disabilities. One in 15 have an IEP. One in 42 have a 504, but we all know that there are still millions that are undiagnosed. Let's talk about graduation rates. Graduation rates for the neurodivergent college students remain lower than the neurotypical students. There's about 49% of students with disabilities—again, those I described earlier with diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, 2E students as well—49% are completing their college programs. This is in contrast to what has been reported by Best Colleges as the general graduation rate at a four-year university or institution at 62%. What might be some of the barriers to that persistence? I'm sure many of you are already thinking—you have some in mind. There might be limited access to supportive resources—that could be one something holding a student back, possibly. Faculty and staff work so hard, and we want to recognize them, but it could be that maybe they don't have sufficient training in working with the neurodivergent student. There might also be some reluctance from students to disclose their neurodivergent status—maybe fear of stigmatization or just lack of awareness of what they may need should they disclose. The path begins with self-knowledge. As an education professional, these are ways that you can help. First, helping your young student find that self-awareness related to their strengths and identifying those areas of challenge and understanding their identities and their diagnosis. Fostering recognition of supports that might be available at the college that they're planning on going to or planning to apply to. Maybe they're entering a gap year program—recognizing supports there or even just the work environment and what might be recognized there. Encouraging participation in programs to help students better understand their LD and articulate what it means and learn the strategies to support it. Lastly, helping your young students strengthen their ability to articulate their LDs to others. Maybe even offering an opportunity for them to role-play with you to help build their confidence in expressing and articulating. They may want to consider disclosing. As they build that confidence in articulating, some things to consider: Unlike high school, a college will not know about a student's LD unless specifically told by the student. According to the National Special Education Advocacy Institute, undergraduates who wait until after their first year in college to request accommodations were three and a half times more likely not to graduate within six years. Imagine additional cost associated and just diligence and determination needed from the students. Also, considering that students don't outgrow their disabilities. Maybe many of you educators know this already, but oftentimes, students think, "Well, that's how I was in elementary school and high school—I don't have that anymore headed off to college." Again, you don't outgrow your disability; you learn how best to work with your strengths and addressing your challenges. Let's look at some of the legal drivers and compare what may be driving the secondary education experience and what might be driving the postsecondary education experience. The secondary education experience—IDEA, or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is the driver. Success and reaching targets are paramount to the IDEA Act. Schools take the lead—they identify and provide intensive supports. Parents are encouraged and are often the advocate for their young student. Often, teachers and staff are all aware of a student's disability status. That, in comparison to the post-secondary educational experience, or college: What takes over there with the driver is the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Access is guaranteed, but success is not. That's an interesting distinction to make. Students assume the primary responsibility for their education and must self-advocate. Only instructors a student notifies will be aware of their status. The IEP and 504 plans have no legal weight. The Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act 1973 prevents discrimination, but again, the 504 plan doesn't have any legal weight in the post-secondary environment. No institutional accountability or monitoring is there. When looking again at these two, comparing them both—the legal drivers: IDEA in the secondary educational environment, success is the target, and most schools are aware of the student needs. In the postsecondary educational experience, ADA is the driver—access is guaranteed but not success, and the students have to lead the disclosure and must be an advocate for themselves. In looking at potential schools or identifying your students' needs and the school that might best suit those needs, let's look at a few options. The first one is a school that would be ADA-compliant. This is a school that meets the ADA requirements. There may not be any additional cost associated. There would be a small number of staff devoted to the neurodivergent student who has disclosed. There might be academic centers for writing, possibly math. There might even be a reading center. It's peer-based tutoring for the intro courses, and likely, once again, the student must advocate for services. Who does a fantastic job in this arena is the community colleges that we have around us—and we have some amazing ones in the area. Then, there are those that might be ADA-compliant plus. These are colleges, universities, institutions that go beyond ADA requirements. They may still not have a cost involved. There might be a slightly better student-to-staff ratio. Likely, there are peer-based, possibly professional academic coaching that would be offered. Once again, the student must advocate for the services. Some examples of these, even locally in the area, are the LINK Program at Cal State East Bay and the Wayfinders Program at Cal State Fresno. Then, we move on to a little bit more of a structured program, and these are IND programs that are offered, offering individualized services. Maybe they are fee-based. They tend to be more comprehensive with academic tutoring and skill-building support. There is likely a full-time, specialized staff. The programs generally ensure services with not as much student advocacy required. There's some fantastic private colleges that do this in the area. St. Mary’s College has their Connect Program, and there's the SALT Program at Arizona State University, or ASU. Then, there are a couple of LD colleges to consider. The first important item that they might have is full-time support staff. A comprehensive academic, social, pragmatic, and executive function support program. Likely, there are no additional fees—it would be all rolled into the cost. An example of this, of course, is Landmark College, as I described it earlier, but there's another one as well. Landmark College is a beautiful, bucolic environment in Vermont—Putney, Vermont, in fact. There's another one, Beacon College, which is located in Florida, and they have a little more of an urban experience, whereas Landmark College has research alongside the education. If your student decides they do want to disclose to the disability services office at the school they are considering, let's look at what those offices might be called because it can be a bit confusing, but they all generally address the same thing. Here—"What's in a name?" I think that was said by William Shakespeare—but oftentimes, it's called a Disability Support Services office or an Accessibility Resources office. I've got lots of other names here for you to choose from—whatever might work for any particular school. To make it a lot easier on your student, you can search the school's website and type in "disability," and you'll find out the name of that particular school's Disability Services office. Aside from deciding to disclose to the disability services office, other supports on campus should be considered in the student's application process as well. Looking at whether or not the school has tutoring services or study skill workshops. Maybe some sort of academic coaching, such as maybe a Writing Center or even some reading supports. Do they offer assistive technology? That can be very helpful to a neurodivergent student having difficulty either reading—maybe they need some sort of text-to-speech assistive technology. So, looking at possibly having some assistive technology as part of the school. Maybe some mentorship programs or honor societies that might be important to the student. Of course, looking at support groups such as counselors and advisors. Not forgetting about social programming and clubs—maybe sports associated. Then, looking to the orientation services to identify and share where to find all of these different departments on campus. Then, the last one there is the dining services. Oftentimes, this is overlooked because students don't consider this as a support, but if somebody does have dietary needs, the dining hall can provide support there oftentimes. Let's switch gears a minute. A very famous neurodivergent author, inventor, and advocate is Temple Grandin. She shares that, "The world needs all kinds of minds." Important to note: Oftentimes, the neurodivergent student has some executive function challenges—not all, but many. To that end, considering executive function support is something every student should consider—those that are challenged with executive function, I'll say, should consider. Executive function is the management system for the brain. Zelazo, Blair, and Willoughby offer that it can be defined as an attention-regulation skill needed for conscious, goal-directed problem-solving. So, you need to be able to identify your goal and problem-solve to reach that goal—executive function. If someone's having difficulty in executive function, what might that look like? If someone is challenged, it might be an individual having trouble managing their time or starting or completing projects and tasks. I'm sure you've come across many neurodivergent students who have completed their homework, and it sits in their backpack—they haven't turned it in. That's an important task to work on. Maybe having difficulty prioritizing those tasks—what's more important than others. Following directions, maybe having difficulty with the rules and routines. Maybe difficulty organizing tasks or thoughts or even having trouble planning for those long-term projects. We had a recent client of ours at the Success Center who was in college for visual arts, and she was really challenged with studying her notes from her classes—from the classes with lectures. What the learning specialist did was help her to pull those concepts together and map them out visually so she could learn the tasks that way. Again, that's something with planning—you can scaffold the tasks needed to reach that long-term project. I identified supports that you'll find on campuses, but oftentimes, families consider a team outside of the school as supports. Executive function coaches can be a good place to start. Again, the Success Center does that, but there's many others out there that do a great job. Something for a young student to consider—maybe they're looking at a life coach who can help them identify goals and reaching those goals. There's also independent living trainers out there for that college student that isn't quite ready to manage all of their independent living skills. There are trainers out there that can provide that support. Even peer mentors can be a guide on campus for that young person as they consider transitioning onto whatever school they decide to attend. Then, of course, incorporating therapists as needed. We at the Success Center work in concert with any number of these individuals to support our clients. We encourage that any support that is found is done from a strength-based model. Strength-based models are ones that emphasize the positive aspects of the student's effort and achievement, as well as what their strengths are. I mentioned a moment ago the project that was mapped out—or, excuse me, the lecture that was mapped out in the form of visual aids for an individual. That's a way of building upon an individual's strengths and addressing their challenges. More specifically, strength-based is taking what a student possesses as a strength, leaning into that, and then addressing challenges from there. Lopez and Lewis offered this description. How best can you, as an education professional, help prepare your students as they consider putting together a roster of schools and trying to figure out what might work best for them to ensure a successful transition? One of the first things is: How can you help your students articulate their needs and identify those colleges and transition programs to apply to which more closely matches their needs? What might be some open-ended questions that you could ask your students so they may better prepare their list of possible schools? This is just one sentence stem here: "Tell me about what kind of environment you like to be in. Is it a large environment like a city, or do you prefer something outdoors?" That's just one example. Consider helping with their homework submission, their paperwork submission to the disability services office. Remind them that they are the expert on them. Helping them to understand that they have to advocate for themselves—they are the expert. Then, as they look to develop that list of schools, what might be on that list addressing their student learning needs? That's one of the items that should be on their list. Identifying what environment, again, is—and many of these you're already doing with your students; these are just in addition to if you're not doing this already. What kind of degrees are offered, and what might be desired? What kinds of support centers are on that campus? That is really an important factor when you consider the student's learning needs. What clubs could be related to their major or their interests? Again, building their transition to be positive so they can find people—like people with their interests. Then, of course, considering their social interaction—what kind of groups might be there that have some common interests? Again, preparation and consideration, of course, makes for a better first-year transition. I mentioned a moment ago about providing open-ended questions, which I know many of you do this already. What you'll find on the screen here—and again, you will get a copy of this presentation—these are some sample questions that you could use. For instance, if you wanted to inquire about what sort of support services one of your students was interested in identifying, you could ask something such as, "What types of academic support services are you looking for?" Maybe in terms of transition support: "What type of transition support do you think you will need as you move from high school to college?" You'll get a copy of these, and you might find these helpful and add them to your arsenal of questions you likely are already asking your young students. I want to thank you all for being here. Thank you, of course, to the participants. My name is listed once again here along with my contact information, and I will turn it over to Callie. We can't hear you, Callie. Callie Turk: Thank you. Thank you. You think after all these years we'd be better at that, but thank you. Always learn something new when I listen to you go through information. On that note about having access to the slides, I want to make sure—while I'm introducing myself a little more here—that everyone out there knows you can actually access a Padlet that I put together that has direct links to the slides today, as well as some of the resources that we're covering. While I'm introducing myself briefly in terms of being a parent and giving you the parent perspective, feel free to use the QR code or directly enter that Padlet information if you'd like to access that. We will also include it in the follow-up email for today's presentation so that you can find everything really quickly and easily that you need. I'm just going to take a few minutes to share the parent perspective. I think you'll hear a lot of common themes from what Sandra said, but I really want to get to our students and let them have a chance to share their voices. I'm going to go pretty swiftly through my slides, but know that I am happy to talk to anyone in more detail about these if you'd like. I didn't make like really pretty slides—I just wanted to make sure I covered all the key points quickly and swiftly and that you would know that these points exist on these slides. In addition to co-founding REAL, I am the parent of three young adults, one of whom is an autistic first-year student in college. We just recently went through the college application process, and I wanted just to share some of the insights. Sandra, can you confirm that you hear me smoothly because my video looks a little herky-jerky? Okay, good. Thank you. I just wanted to say a little bit about how we helped create the college list for our daughter. We talked about her interests a lot—so, sort of to the point that Sandra was making about being strength-based, it's also really important, especially with our neurodivergent kids who tend to have stronger interests that are really driving their passions, to really lean into those. That really helped guide a lot of the criteria that we were looking for in schools. We also spent time reflecting on her past experiences and programs she had been to, so that really helped her think about what kind of environment she wanted, what was going to work for her or not work for her. We also met with a private college counselor just a couple of times who had a really deep knowledge of these kinds of programs and accessible education at colleges. That really helped because she really knows those college programs really well. You can sit with her for just an hour or two and talk about what your interest and needs are, and she really was able to sort of narrow down a really good list for us so that we weren't trying to search 2,000 colleges but really more like 20 to 30 colleges. We talked a lot about the criteria that would be important to her. Some of the things that Sandra mentioned—which, I mean, my twice-exceptional daughter who I'm talking about now, she's a twin, so we were doing the same kinds of things with her other sister, who is not neurodivergent, but it was just a really different—it had a different tone to it because her neurotypical sister was able to process a lot of this on her own. She was able to pick up a lot of information just by looking at websites and things, but also, she was just a little more flexible about what she wanted. Whereas, we knew our autistic daughter was going to have more specific interests and needs, so the size of school, the weather—like, she just all said, "I do not want to be somewhere sunny; I don't want to be anywhere sunny," because she doesn't do well with a lot of bright light. Those kinds of considerations were really important, and for her, really important that the school had a feeling of a "warm hug"—like a place where she was going to be really taken, you know, really looked out for and cared for. The college tours were hard but really essential. My daughter isn't one who likes to be on a plane and go a lot of places, but she really learned a lot. The first couple of tours, she was very closed off; she wouldn't want to ask questions, but she was gaining a lot of information we reflected on later. By the third or fourth tour, she knew more what was happening, and she was much more engaged—just a lot of research. I think it's a tendency for college counselors in high school to start trying to have put more on the students because they are going to have to go and self-advocate and be independent. But there is still really a strong role for parents to play in this process, potentially, depending on the child and their temperament and their energy level. So, some parents may be doing a little more of that research than is typical, but that's like a real partnership between them and their child based on what that child is kind of managing—being a senior and taking harder classes and thinking about college. Just a little more flexibility there—that that parent may be doing a little more of that kind of background legwork than other kids' parents may be doing. What really helped us the most was our school counselor. I know a lot of you are school counselors, and I cannot emphasize how important your role is. Our daughter really trusted her school counselor, and that made it so much easier for them to work together. A lot of neurodivergent kids haven't had great experiences working with adults in school environments all the time, especially by the time they've gotten to high school. Any adult that they can really build trust with is someone they're going to really value and open up to. To be that trusting adult in their life, I think, was just hugely valuable. Again, that external college counselor who really helped us with the list. Our school actually offered a one-week summer course on essay writing. It was part of their like normal offerings of summer, and that made a huge difference because these kids were working on the essays with teachers they trusted and with the college counselor they already knew. It really got her so far ahead so that once school started, she really had that personal statement pretty much done. All the websites that colleges offer on accessible education—kind of to Sandra's point—do those web searches and make sure kids are really looking at what's offered. Then, doing an interest-based summer college campus program. We did one—she did one between her junior and senior years where she got to go onto a campus and live there for a week or two and really do an interest-based activity but also experience: What's a dorm like? How do I get food in the cafeteria? A lot of neurodivergent kids have food sensitivities, and so just for her to gain that confidence that she could do that and navigate all that was huge. My top tips for success: Really get the testing accommodations early. That's a process—both the ACT and SAT will offer those accommodations, but you've got to ask for them in enough time. But also, don't stress that much about the test. I think, you know, some neurodivergent kids—yes, are going to go to top-tier schools, and they need to focus on those test scores, and some are not, and it's okay. Like, they don't have to have the perfectly manicured package for all the schools they may apply to and be interested in those places that may be the "warm hug" for that child. So, yes, make sure that we don't put—we don't have the kid not be able to do the test, but also, maybe don't stress about them as much. Really, really find a way to gather the student's input on the schools that are working for them. This may be non-traditional—so, like for my daughter, I created a Google Form. I don't know if it's going to open it up for me or not, but I think I put it in the Padlet. For my daughter, like having a Discord chat actually worked really well—that's how she liked to communicate about this, so I set up a Discord identity, and that's how we communicated. Some kids might want to do voice notes and not carry a journal. My neurotypical girl had a journal, and she wrote everything down—that is not going to work for everybody. So, really aligning to what works for that child and how they like to communicate is really important. To be patient and be flexible. There are going to be moments where whatever you're trying just isn't working, and there's just—we reach these breaking points, and really use that collaborative problem-solving—talk to the child, figure out what would work better. Again, just ground as much as you can in the child's interests and their goals, and that should drive the process. Common myths we ran into along the way that I want to dispel if possible: There are loads of schools out there, and they don't require the most rigorous course load. I feel like in Silicon Valley, there's this tendency to put a lot of pressure on kids to have the most rigorous course load, the most pristine record, to have everything lined up, and that is just a myth. You can lean into interest in your course selection. This really reinforces that story of who the child is, and we found schools really were much more interested in that than whether that child had taken the most selective course load. Most schools want these kids to be themselves. Most colleges we found really do want to help students, and they're really open about accommodations. We heard a lot of people say, "Well, you won't get those accommodations in college," or "You won't—no one will do this X, Y, or Z for you," and it's actually, like, not true. We found colleges were actually willing to have those conversations a lot more, even if you have to self-advocate with your professors. If that college isn't, then it just may not be the right college for your student. I think you have to, as a parent, acknowledge that. Students really don't have to spend the first two years taking general courses that they're not that interested in. You can go to colleges that let you start taking classes in your interest area right away. I think that's really important for these kids to know because sometimes school has been a real drag for a long time, and we can really get them excited about college when they realize they can take classes that are super interesting and they really do. Many colleges want to support neurodivergent students, but I would say just a lesson learned on our part is: Unless you're going, I think, to like a Landmark or a Beacon, they're going to focus more on academic support than social support. Even when they have a program maybe specifically for autistic kids, we found a lot of times it's not doing the social skills support as much as kids might benefit from. That is my fire hose of what you might want to know from a parent's point of view because I really want to make sure we have plenty of time to listen to the students. I should also say, if you have any questions while we transition over to our time with the students, please put them in the chat. We will address some of the questions we can here today; we also will collect those and address what we can't in the follow-up email. I'm just so excited to introduce you today to Daniel and Talia, who are students at Landmark College. We have a few questions we're going to ask them to answer, and then open it up for you guys to ask any of us any questions, but first, I'm going to start with Daniel and just ask you to tell us a little bit about yourself and what your college journey was like. Daniel Cabaniss: Sure. Hi, everybody. My name is Daniel Cabaniss, and I am a senior at Landmark College. I am also a campus ambassador, as is Talia. My experience—first of all, in the case of self-disclosing—I have ADHD, and I also have a visual processing disorder. I'm a student who was diagnosed relatively late. I was diagnosed at 14 or 15, and I was really in denial about my need for accommodations and my need for a school that was in any way different from that of my peers. I thought that I could basically just power through college the same way I was sort of powering through high school. That ended up, of course, not being correct, but that was that was my my thought process coming in. My experience with the college application process itself was really one of going to the guidance counselor at my high school. First of all, the high school counselor being very interested in school ranking and giving me colleges based on school ranking—which, you know, that is definitely a way to tell how good a college is in certain aspects, but it wasn't extremely helpful for me. Then also being told, "Oh, here—here are a few things you as a student are not so great at multitasking; here's a school where they take one class at a time," which is Colorado College—the my first school that I ended up going to. Basically, sort of being railroaded a little bit into that direction without considering some of the other things that were most important to me. If I could go back and ask myself questions—put being put into that college counselor role—I would ask myself the question, "What is the class that you appreciate the most, that you feel the most safe in, you feel like you learn the best in, and what are the things that make that class that way?" Sort of helping to elucidate sort of the real—the real reasons, the real things that make me feel held and put me in an advantageous position to learn. Callie Turk: I think that's a pretty succinct way of starting off. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Talia, would you mind answering that same question? Talia Katz: Yes. Well, Daniel did so great that it's hard to top that, but I'm Talia. I'm a junior at Landmark. I have ADHD as well and anxiety. I was diagnosed when I was 19, so after I had already begun college. I was also at a fairly competitive school—I'm from Long Island, and we're not as bad as California, but we come close to you guys—no offense. The college application process was brought up like the first day of high school. I was one of those students who would just power through. I signed myself up for everything, and I did as much work as I could, but there's there was always things dropping off. I kind of had the mindset that that would stop in college. Unfortunately, the way we did it—because of the competitive school, the goal was like to go to the hardest school you could get into. So, I went to my guidance counselor, but I also had a like a separate college counselor, and we visited all the schools. I determined that the hardest school I could go to was the University of Chicago, so I early decision there. The only good thing about that was that I didn't have to write a million essays because if I had to sit at that kitchen table with my parents for much longer, I don't know if any of us would have made it. That was a rough experience. I went there, and it wasn't the right fit for me. So, I would say my my biggest thing is: Don't go to the hardest school you can get into. The idea of a "warm hug" kind of school sounds lovely and is definitely kind of the experience at Landmark now, but there are other schools that you can get that at. To find that, you might want to visit schools in the winter and kind of see what the atmosphere of the "warm hug" is because Chicago is very cold; Vermont is also cold—less cold. That's important. Callie Turk: Yes, I have a daughter in Minnesota, and in the 40s there today, and it's balmy, so I hear what you say—that is how we feel. Daniel, we had talked about maybe you just sharing a little bit about like what questions you wish your college counselor had asked you in the process. Daniel Cabaniss: Yeah, absolutely. I mentioned earlier about talking about what makes you feel like you're in sort of the best place for you in your academic life. I think that's a really important question to ask—just the simple like, "Who's your favorite teacher? What was your favorite class? Why?" Getting myself—or getting a student—to really understand and grok, like, not just that the class was great but break it up in individual pieces and figure out the the, "Oh, yes, this thing in particular—the small class sizes was why," or "The teacher had a lot of one-on-one time with me, and that's why," or something like that. I think another thing that is really important is—I really wish I was asked more about what my interests were and sort of, "What are the things that, when I am struggling with executive function skills or things of that nature, what are the things that are in my mind that keep me going?" For me, that's chorus and a cappella. I held on at my first school for two and a half—almost three years—despite all of my challenges and never going to get academic support even though I really should have because I was running an a cappella group and knew that people really relied on me. I knew that if I failed out, then I was going to have to explain to a bunch of people—like, all my friends—why I couldn't run this thing anymore. Really sticking with, "What are those things that you are so passionate about that they will sort of propel you through your college experience?" I think those are really important. I think that those can be sort of a starting point for figuring out what college is right for your students. Callie Turk: I love that, too, because like there's a lot of research that shows, too, when people who maybe have executive function challenges are doing things in their area of interest or passion, they actually are practicing more of those executive function skills and making more social connections. I love that idea of that accountability to other people that's like baked into to what you're doing—that's awesome. Now, I want to hear you sing, but we won't ask you to do that today. Talia, how did you evaluate Landmark and other schools? And so, what's some of the important information to look for when you're evaluating, and what do you wish you looked for—because it's so overwhelming? Talia Katz: Definitely it's very overwhelming, and though, so there are things you can find on like college websites that you might not think you'd be able to find. Like how supportive is the academic support center? And for that you're going to want to look at like how many people are working there. Are they all peer tutors? What's their experience like? Do they have experience working with neurodivergent students, or were they just former English teachers? Both are great, but that serves a different purpose. How connected is the academic support to Disability Services? Disability Services is very understaffed at so many schools. And while it's great—yes, you go as soon as you get there, you get that support—they're not going to, at a lot of places, they're not going to stick with you through your career there. They're going to tell you, "Okay, this is what you're getting. This is how much extra time you get. This is how you'll tell your professors." And that's our whole job. Some schools have that more connected with academic support. So like some schools will do part of those executive functioning tasks for you, and that's kind of what you like, just because it's such an overwhelming experience to walk into a new place and have all these systems to get to know. The more connected the school has it, the better. And so you can kind of see like what's linked on their website, whose pictures do they have, can I contact this person? And like you can always call the school and ask to talk to a student. And then the more you talk to the student, the more you can be like, "So what is that really like? What is that really like?" A good way that I've done that in the past is going to the school itself, if you can travel to the school, and like having lunch in the dining hall, and going up to random students. Can be tough—you can have your mom do it! And students really don't mind. It's kind of nice. They never really—you never really get to talk and tell the real story. So it's very—it's exciting for everybody. Yeah, yeah. And to Daniel's point, too—talking about like what you want your life to look like. What are the important things to you? Like what are your values? And if your value is going outside, that is a value. Like, what are things that you don't like living without? Callie Turk: Yeah, that's so—that's so great. And I know that, you know, you looked at a school, a couple schools, and that's really helpful. Like you said, like my daughter, like being somewhere where it was not sunny and not having to go outside was a high value. And that's different than a lot of kids. So I think not assuming, too, everybody wants the same thing is really helpful. So Daniel, what advice do you have for students with learning differences as they start their college search? So like advice that you have for those students that college counselors can pass along? Daniel Cabaniss: Yeah. Don't—don't do what I did. I think really, my advice for students—and I know this can be tough, because there are certain times when things have to start, right? When you know, like getting into junior year and SATs, ACTs, all that sort of stuff. But starting to think about it early, so that there is no rush. I know that I certainly—I felt rushed in many ways. And so because of that rush, I felt pressured into making a decision and convincing myself that I liked that decision. And that is a—that's sort of a bad cycle to get into. So thinking about it early, giving yourself plenty of time, and really not getting married to any school. There's no need to have any loyalty to a school that you like. That's something that I sort of, in my second college search, really understood, is—you know, to a certain extent: what can you give me? Right? I'm not just applying, I'm not just sort of submitting to this higher power. It's: I'm a person who has a specific learning style and specific needs. These are things that I want. Do you have them? And are you going to be nice to me about it? And if not, then bye-bye. Sort of confirming that self-worth and value. College students—you know, these prospective college students—yeah, we've got value. And sometimes it feels hard to accept that when you're in high school, but this can be sort of part of that. Callie Turk: Definitely, definitely. And you know, I haven't gotten any questions yet in from our people who are attending. If anyone wants to put a question in the chat, feel free. But I thought there was a really good one that came in as part of the pre-submitted questions that you all might be great to answer, which is: Just how do we think about balancing, you know, as a—when we're like, as the parents or the college counselors working with students who are neurodivergent—how do you all suggest we balance empowering students to have control over the process versus helping them with their executive function skills? So I think this is a common tension point, right? Yeah, and I'm not sure any family ever gets it quite right. But as a college counselor, like how could they help kind of create that balance? Talia Katz: I can answer that, and then Daniel, if you have anything to add, please. So basically, just—it’s hard. But don't assume that you'll suddenly be good at things. Like it's nice to imagine that you'll go to sleep one day after procrastinating and in the morning you'll be able to do stuff. And everyone has that experience—neurotypical and neurodiverse. And the same goes for like letting parents help their students. Like there are weaknesses that we have, and focusing on those is just going to make the whole experience a lot harder. And like it's—so all the like organizing things, the keeping track of deadlines, the adult things—making appointments, stuff like that. As long as you're in communication with your student like, "Hey, I just did this thing. I did this thing. Look, here that thing is." It's like when you're training someone, and so you copy them on all your emails. Pretend like you're training someone new. And yeah, it is—it's hard as a student still to let my parents help with stuff. But like you make that spreadsheet for them and then you're like, "Oh, why don't you answer this question?" Or like, "Which question would you like to answer for this week?" A lot of executive functioning is breaking things down. So like, if you can break things down already for them, that's really helpful. Hopefully every student is different. But there's also a lot—a lot of emotional tax that comes with all this. So the less like—and this isn't something me or my parents are ever successful at—but the less we put our emotions on each other, the better we feel. Then we're like, "This is hard for me, but I'm not putting—" like, say the words out loud that you don't want them to think. Callie Turk: Yes, yeah. Co-regulation. Yes, together. Daniel Cabaniss: Yes. I'll just add on something really quickly as well, which is that, you know, we're talking about these students who are twice exceptional. And so that means that there are places everywhere where they are exceptional—right? And those strengths, either strengths or passions, you know—what's something that's really important, that they're really excited about? And finding that, and then letting them take charge of that—of that aspect of the college process. And the way that I have really improved my executive functioning skills is around those periods, those areas of passion or strength. And then realizing, "Oh, I need a foundation to support that." And so, yeah, you know, splitting up, right? To a certain extent letting them take those aspects. Taking—as parents or as counselors—taking control of the other aspects. And then as they sort of understand, "Oh, this is connected to that," including them in more. Callie Turk: And Sandra, I think you might have wanted to weigh in on this question as well. You can have the last word as we wrap up. Sandra Fishler: Ah, I was—quite frankly, I was so enraptured in what both of you shared. I think finding the balance and exactly that is so hard. Leaning into your strengths is so important. And I love that, Daniel—you're right, it's not just interests, it's passions. Right? Taking that and leveraging it, leaning into it, saying, "What would work best for me?" And really, like, without being dazzled by going to the hardest school, as Talia was mentioning, or going to this school that everybody thinks is so cool and we've got to go there—or maybe a family member went to a particular school, and so you feel compelled that you have to go. Kind of setting aside all of that outside noise and really leaning into your strengths and what you are passionate about and interested in, I think is a way to find the most balance. And of course, scaffolding and breaking down those tasks is essential. Callie Turk: Yeah. And we're gonna wrap up here because it's exactly 2:30. And I really just appreciate all of the wisdom and insights that all three of you shared today. I hope everyone here walks away with this belief that neurodivergent kids can be successful in the college application process—as long as we are reminding them to take joy along the way, and we are seeing it as a learning experience for everyone. And scaffolding and partnering and collaborating between parents, students, and their counselors—it can really be an affirming process. And kids can learn a lot about themselves and feel good about the decisions they're making at the end of the day that are going to impact the rest of their lives. So thank you all for coming, for the important work that you're doing to support neurodivergent kids in reaching their goals and dreams, and to our three speakers today for just sharing so much of yourselves and your experiences with us. Have a great day. Thank you.

Updated March 2025 with feedback from our community! It’s Winter in the Bay Area - cold weather, dark evenings, and rain. It’s also the time to start planning your child’s summer! Regardless of what path you choose for your 2e kids this summer, remember to focus on their strengths and interests - this is a time for them to explore and grow in ways that the school year often can’t afford. Often, students don’t get to spend time on their strengths and interests during the school year, so summer is a great opportunity to do just that. Camps, internships, mentorships, and independent projects are all great options. Finding camps which can support your twice-exceptional (2e) and neurodivergent (ND) child - while also fitting into your commute and your other summer plans - can often be extra-challenging. We’ve gathered this list of camps that have been recommended and/or researched by our REEL parent community. We hope this list is a helpful starting point for you as you consider summer camps for your 2e children. (Please note, though, that REEL does not endorse any camps and is not responsible for any individual’s experience. Have a camp you think we should add? Please reach out to hello@reel2e.org .) SILICON VALLEY ND FRIENDLY DAY CAMPS Athena Academy Summer (Palo Alto) & Charles Armstrong Summer (Belmont) https://athenaacademy.org/summer-camp/ https://www.charlesarmstrong.org/admissions/summer-school “Both of these schools run fun summer camps for dyslexic students.” - A.K. Beacon Wellness Camps (Sunnyvale) https://www.beaconwellnessteam.com/groups-and-camps This camp provides a supportive, collaborative environment where individuals can connect with others facing similar challenges, gain new perspectives, and grow together. Camps are offered on a variety of topics including building social skills through fantasy and games, cognitive flexibility & perfectionism, and mindfulness through art. Beyond the Box Learning (Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and more) https://www.beyondtheboxlearning.com/classes/ "One of Beyond the Box's summer camps was our introduction to writing with Royd and Shu-Hsien. He's taken several classes with them since then." - S.T. CHC: Sand Hill School Summer (Palo Alto) sandhillschool.org/summer/ Sand Hill Summer is designed for children who face challenges in reading, writing, spelling, or mathematics during the school year. Children with dyslexia, ADHD, language-based learning disabilities, or other specific learning disabilities will experience success in a supportive, skill-building environment. Our program balances fun activities tailored to students' interests with evidence-based academic support. (For kids entering grades 2-8.)   CHC: S.P.O.T. Summer (Palo Alto) chconline.org/spot S.P.O.T. gives your child the gifts of feeling understood, making friends, and having fun, while developing skills to help prepare them for their best school year yet! Led by a speech language pathologist and occupational therapist, your child will develop social, emotional, sensory regulation, and communication skills   through art, science, nature, and wonder. (Ages 5-9) City of Palo Alto Summer Camps (Bay Camp, Zoo Camp, MakeX, many more) https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Community-Services/CSD-Service-Pages/Register-for-Activities-Classes “My kids loved the small groups and immersive, hands-on activities at all of the science camps. An instructor and several helpers provide plenty of support. They get to delve deeply into their passion areas. I’ve also heard great things about the art and drama, etc camps but haven’t tried them yet.” - Y.V. "Palo Alto Zoo science camp was great for my kindergartener. Shoutout to Jennifer who was running the camp classes and she was an amazing leader and super inclusive, informed, and kind and respectful to my 2e and non-2e boys." Curiodyssey Summer Camp (San Mateo) https://curiodyssey.org/learn-explore/summer-camps-overview " Before the camp started, they hosted an information night on Zoom meeting, providing a lot of information to parents. They also reached out to parents who identified their kids with special needs during the registration process. At the drop off on the first day, I saw the camp teacher printed out my email with their own comments to get fully prepared. They have daily check in with me at pickup and sincerely take my suggestions on how to work with my son. On the last day of the camp, the kiddos had great presentations with their own made posters." - C.Z. Decathlon Sports Club (Woodside and Los Altos) https://www.decathlonsportsclub.com/ “We’ve had a lot of luck with Decathlon Sports Camp for my high energy ADHDer. They are a long running family run camp with a high camper-to-counselor ratio. They’ve been especially high-touch with my family’s extra needs in the last few years, going the extra mile to make sure my kids are matched with loving experienced counselors and checking in frequently with me for feedback.” - C.P. FANWAR LARP Camp (Palo Alto) https://www.fanwar.com/ Ed note: This camp runs weekly throughout the year as well. "This is the camp for all kids who love to LARP and role-play. It's Dungeons & Dragons brought to life. My son and his friends can't get enough." - A.K. ID Tech (Stanford and various other locations) https://www.idtech.com/ Ed note: Check out their sleepaway options as well! "My son LOVED his three one-week sessions at ID Tech this summer. Completely rocked it. Seeing the other kids there, I'd say at least half of the ones in his classes seemed to be on the spectrum so the instructors must be used to it." - L.L. "My 2e son had a fabulous time during his week of coding camp. He really seemed to be with 'his people' and would come home and code for hours after camp ended." - A.K. "My son attended the Stanford location of ID Tech for the first time this summer. It was a week term. It was a solid experience in terms of being able to communicate his needs ahead of time. His counselor seemed really engaged. I found the lunch buffet in the cafeteria and access to a marketplace a great way to help my son experience more independence (e.g. deciding what he eats, and budgeting his allowance) with some scaffolding in place." - S.T. Galileo (Bay Area, Southern CA, Chicago, Denver, Seattle) https://galileo-camps.com/ “Very hands-on camp with different themes each week. Art, science, and active sections daily. Non-competitive. Emphasizes creativity and experimentation. High quality counselors and helpers. Good ratio. There is a rah-rah portion in the morning that may not be suitable for all kids. Allowed us to bring an aide.” - Y.V. "My kids like Galileo Summer Quest. Choice has been key for my kid doing well at camp, and Galileo let them pick their own area (ex. my kid wanted to learn to sew)." - D.W. Great Book Summer (Stanford, multiple locations) https://greatbookssummer.com "My rising 10th grader attended the residential program at Stanford University and had a fantastic experience. They offer programs across the U.S. and abroad. They offer both day and residential programs. If your teen wants to try a residential program, in a lower-stakes way (no need to leave the Bay Area), and loves either writing or reading, I cannot recommend the Stanford program enough. I bet their other locations are also fabulous." -L.D. "My child did the Great Books program the summer between 6th and 7th grade and it was *transformative.* It was definitely what convinced them that they wanted to be doing that level of reading and analysis year round, and that they would be fine going away to boarding school (which they did!). I high recommend it as well." - K.Z. Jefunira (Stanford) https://jefuniracamp.com/ “Activities are fun, creative, and mostly non-competitive games. They are more flexible than most camps - they want kids to try everything, but if a kid really doesn’t want to do something after trying it, they will usually accommodate.” - L.L. Kidizens (Los Altos) https://kidizens.com/ "My son has asked to return to this camp several times now over the past few years with him also attending its past summer camps and a spring break camp. I especially found the lead counselor, Donald, this past summer to be inclusive and engaging." - S.T. Maker Nexus (Sunnyvale) https://www.makernexus.com/youth-programs “Wide variety of maker space camps including woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing, D&D, Arduino, and more. Small groups with an instructor and helper provide plenty of support. Amazing equipment and freedom to be creative.” - Y.V. Marine Science Institute (Redwood City) https://www.sfbaymsi.org/summer-marine-science-camp “My 2e and gifted children loved this science camp when they were in elementary school. The staff is friendly and overall the camp feels relaxed.” - A.K. "After the first day, the camp director identified my son's needs. After checking with me, she immediately took action and assigned experienced staff members to work with my son and provided him the breaks he needed. This is the first time he finished the camp without getting kicked out. It means so much to him. I am so grateful!" - C.Z. Movement formerly Planet Granite (Sunnyvale) https://movementgyms.com/sunnyvale/climbing/youth-programs/ "My 12 y/o has participated in their summer and spring camps for the past 5 years. He's progressed and pushed himself to climb higher and attempt challenging routes. He takes a book to read when he wants some down time during the half day sessions. It's one of the few camps he asks to attend every summer." - S.T. RPG Mystery Quest Field Days (Oakland) https://www.gamescapecenter.org/camp Ed note: This camp is run by Doug Ronning, a past REEL speaker. REEL parents have participated in his past online D&D groups and highly recommend his programs! A l ive Action Role-Play camp designed using a neurodiversity-affirmative approach.   School of Rock (various locations) https://www.schoolofrock.com/ Stanbridge Academy Summer Camps (San Mateo) https://www.stanbridgeacademy.org/afterschool--summer-school.html "My 2e son thrived in this environment without incident. And made FRIENDS!!!! It is a major relief to me to know he's in a safe and supportive environment." Steve and Kate's Camp (Various Bay Area locations) https://steveandkatescamp.com/ "Steve and Kate's lets each camper decide exactly which activities they want to do. It was a good fit when my kids were young. However Steve and Kate's only works if they pick a site with outdoor space. A few summers it was great - for instance at Encinal School, with all the classrooms and outdoor space. I'd say learning what the location looks like is very important, in addition to the content itself!" - D.W. "Steve and Kate's camp in Walnut Creek has been great with our kiddo. He is also 11 years old, and he gets bored and overwhelmed easily. The camp allows him to select his activities and the days he wants to come. They have made a huge effort to understand our kiddo and make his experience a good one." - D.P. TechKnowHow (Various Bay Area locations) https://www.techknowhowkids.com “Great camp for tinkerers, budding engineers, and LEGO lovers! Counselors were able to work with my son even though he needed extra support reading some of the instructions.” - A.K. Tinkering Camp (Half Moon Bay / San Francisco / San Rafael) Ed note: In past years there has been a sleepaway camp option; the overnight camp is unfortunately not happening in summer 2023, but the day camps are running. https://www.tinkeringschool.com/day-camp-san-francisco “Tinkering Camp is the summer program of Brightworks School. It is an amazing hands-on building camp which my 2e son has loved for many years.” - A.K. "This camp has lots of 2E kids, and more of an even gender balance than other science/builder/coding camps we've tried." - M.K. Tribal Wisdom Academy (Los Gatos) https://www.tribalwisdomacademy.com/ “I learned about this camp on a Facebook group for Bay Area ND and gifted kids. My kids totally loved it! The husband and wife couple who run it are great.” - A.K. Wheelkids (Palo Alto, plus other locations) https://wheelkids.com/ “Good quality counselors and programs, worked well with our ND kids.” - L.L. Young Actors Theatre Camp (Santa Cruz) https://www.campyatc.com/ "I learned about this amazing camp that’s great for 2e and is highly inclusive - one kid grew from just watching to meeting industry experts and singing and performing abroad etc!" - Y.V. ND FRIENDLY SLEEPAWAY CAMPS Akeela (Vermont) https://campakeela.com/ “Where quirky campers thrive. Akeela campers are boys and girls completing grades 3 – 10 who are excited about a camp experience that supports their social growth. Many have been diagnosed with Asperger’s, NVLD or a similar neurodiverse profile. At Akeela, they truly belong and find lifelong friends.” - Akeela website “Big property in Vermont with a lake. Co-ed. More for ‘rule followers’ - do not want to deal with refusals or oppositional behaviors. 3 periods in the morning of preselected activities, then each week they choose what they want to do for the other 2 periods in the afternoon.” - L.L. “As the kids age, they can check out ‘Beyond Akeela’, which aims to prepare them with the life skills they need to live independently and/or on a college campus. We haven’t gone ourselves but have heard good things.” - C.T. Altitude (Santa Clara) https://viaservices.org/services/altitude/altitude-summer/ Ed note: This camp also seems to have a day camp option. “Altitude provides year-round camping experiences for participants entering 6th through 12th grade with social cognitive challenges including: verbal and nonverbal learning disabilities, ADHD, Asperger’s, and high functioning autism. We build social skills, independence, and self-confidence to prepare our participants for the transition to young adulthood, future relationships, and the rest of their lives.” - Altitude website “This is an outdoorsy, swimming, hiking, crafting camp. You can do an intake interview with the person who runs the program, and she will answer all of your questions so you can weigh whether it would be a good fit for your kiddo. The woman I talked to did know the term 2e and seemed to really want the camp to be a place that would work for my daughter. We didn’t end up going, but it may be worth looking into if you’re looking to try out a camp experience that isn’t too far from home, since it’s right here in Silicon Valley.” - C.T. Camp Sequoia (Pennsylvania) https://www.camp-sequoia.com/ “Camp Sequoia is a supportive overnight camp for exceptional young men ages 7-17 and exceptional young women ages 10-16, focusing on the unique needs of boys with ADHD and those working on social or life development skills.” - Camp Sequoia website “My son who has ADHD and social anxiety went to Camp Sequoia. He was 17 at the time but it was the best experience of his life and I only wish I had discovered it when he was younger. The director, Brian Lux, understands 2e kids.” - C.E. Hidden Villa (Los Altos Hills) https://www.hiddenvilla.org/programs/summer-camps/region-HV/ Ed note: This program has day camps too! "My son had a successful time at the Hidden Villa Residential (sleepaway) camp. They really do aim to be inclusive. They didn’t schedule a call with us beforehand per se, but I took the initiative to call the director and he really listened. At dropoff I could see they had printed all the forms and the counselors had really read them and were already familiar with everything I mentioned. Although the camp is mostly group-activities rather than individual-choice-activities, they allowed my son to opt out of things he didn't want to do - for example, he played cards most days instead of swimming. They seemed really flexible. Whatever they did, it worked for him and he had a good time there." - L.L. Summit Camp (Pennsylvania) https://summitcamp.com Ed note: We heard from our community that this is an outdoor camp that may accept neurodivergent kids. We're not sure, but it might be worth checking out. “Sleepaway Summer Camp for youth that have social and emotional learning challenges, any age from 8 years to 21 years.” - Summit Camp website Talisman (North Carolina) https://talismancamps.com/ “We provide specialized camp experiences for young people ages 6 to 22 with autism spectrum disorders, ADHD and/or other learning differences.” - Talisman website “This camp has a large variety of programs, for ADHD and autism (or both). The programs range from 1-4 weeks. They can deal with some refusals/oppositional behaviors as long as the child does pose a safety concern to themselves or others.” - L.L. Timbertop (Wisconsin) https://www.timbertopcamp.org/ “Timbertop Camp for youth with learning disabilities and special needs is a Wisconsin overnight summer camp designed for kids that think and learn differently. Youth campers have been identified by their School District as needing extra help for a learning disability or special need. Specific learning disabilities or special needs may include: OHI, ADHD, ADD, LD, SLD and Dyslexia.” - Timbertop website “Extensive intake process. Can deal with behaviors except for elopement. Structured activities in the morning, free afternoons at the lake. Farm animals!” - L.L. Yunasa (Michigan and Colorado) https://educationaladvancement.org/programs/yunasa/about-yunasa/ Designed and led by eminent experts in the field of gifted youth, Yunasa embraces gifted children for who they are, helping them understand and work with the unique joys and challenges that gifted children face. Geared toward the unique needs of gifted children, while offering all the enjoyment of a traditional summer sleep-away camp, Yunasa provides a combination of traditional camp activities and special workshops designed specifically to help gifted children learn more about themselves as they develop greater awareness and self-acceptance. The week-long camp is held in Colorado in June and Michigan in July. 2E-SPECIFIC PROGRAMS Bridges Academy Summer Ed note: Bridges Academy does not yet have its 2023 summer program offerings available. To get a sense of what they offer, you can view last year’s courses here: https://2ecenter.org/product-category/summer-2022/ “Bridges Academy is a LA-based 4th-12th grade school for 2e learners. They run a summer program as well, which is offered both online and in person at their campus in Studio City, CA. My 2e son loved the Dungeons & Dragons class he took online in this program during the height of COVID, and my gifted son enjoyed a debate class online that year as well. The teachers all understand gifted and 2e kids and the environment is supportive and fun.” - A.K. Young Scholars Academy https://youngscholarsacademy.org/ “Young Scholars Academy is an online enrichment program for 2e kids. They have classes for kids all year around, including summer. My son is currently enrolled in an after school ‘wacky history’ class, which is one of his interests. This is a great community of like-minded families and 2e kids, but they have to enjoy meeting virtually, something which can sometimes be challenging for some of our 2e kids (mine especially!)” - A.K. Crescanova https://www.cresconova.org/ “Crescanova is a new nonprofit organization that runs online programs for gifted elementary school aged students, including course options over the summer. They have worked with 2e learners, too!” - C.T. PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAM CONSIDERATIONS A plethora of pre-college programs for high schoolers exists on college campuses. Examples include UC’s Cosmos Program , Emory’s Pre-College Program , and University of Connecticut’s Pre-College Summer - but these are just a few among many (including Brown University, Stanford Summer Humanities Institute, Columbia University, Washington University, Loyola Marymount - there are so many!). The programs on college campuses are either offered directly by the college or by other organizations who host programs or camps on college campuses (such as Johns Hopkins CTY , Great Books , iDTech and Summer Springboard ). While none of these options appear to be directly geared toward 2e kids, these programs provide the opportunity for a high schooler to go very deep in an interest area while having the chance to live on a college campus. A few key questions to consider when looking at these programs: What accommodations in the learning and residential program might they make? Will teachers be flexible in allowing students to use the supports that help them to learn and participate (i.e., a quiet space to work, headphones, movement breaks, etc.)? Are they run by the college or an outside company? Either way, does the organization running the program have experience with neurodivergent students? Does the schedule allow for downtime? Can students opt out of extracurricular or social activities if desired? How many kids will be involved in this program at any given time? How many students will be in each class? What is the instruction to student ratio? What are the dining options? How are food allergies accommodated? What options do they provide for vegetarians, vegans, etc.? What weekend activities are required? Can a child stay on campus rather than participate in a weekend activity, if they prefer? What is the adult supervision in that case? For our older kids, summer can be a great time to volunteer and get involved in the community, or try out a part-time job. And, don’t forget the importance of balancing everything with what works for your family in terms of downtime, rest, family time, and fun. Summer can be both a special time and it can also be stressful, without some of the routines and structures of daily life. As always, we hope you find what works best for your kids and your family!

This cheat sheet is designed to help you better understand the executive functioning (EF) skills your twice-exceptional (2e) child may be using—or struggling to use—throughout the day. These terms come up often in our small group discussions, where parents share how EF challenges show up in real life: the backpack that never makes it to the hook, the meltdown over shifting plans, the great idea that never makes it onto the page. We encourage you not to try to take it all in at once. Choose just one or two EF terms at a time to focus on.  Use them to observe your child with curiosity, not judgment, and to start building practical strategies that support both their needs and their strengths. And remember—executive functioning skills are learned and practiced over time. As adults, we scaffold ourselves constantly: setting alarms, using calendars, creating checklists, even preparing lunches the night before. Our kids need the same kinds of support, often in more visible and hands-on ways, as they practice these skills and discover what works for them. Helping your child find what works for them will take trial and error, creativity, and patience. This vocabulary sheet is here to give you a shared language and a starting point for that process. Core Executive Functions Term Definition Where I See My Child’s Strengths or Struggles - Examples Working Memory Holding and using information in your mind over short periods Remembering multi-step instructions like "Brush your teeth, pack your bag, and grab your lunch" Inhibitory Control Thinking before acting; resisting impulses Blurting out an answer in class Cognitive Flexibility Adapting to new rules, changes, or perspectives Transitioning from a canceled playdate to a new plan without melting down EF-Related Skills Term Definition What These Skills in Action Could Look Like  - Examples Planning Mapping out steps to reach a goal A child makes a list of materials and steps needed to complete a science project. Task Initiation Starting tasks without excessive procrastination A student begins their homework when it’s assigned instead of putting it off until bedtime. Organization Structuring materials and spaces effectively A child keeps a labeled folder for each subject in their backpack. Time Management Estimating and using time wisely A teen sets a timer to spend 30 minutes on math and 20 minutes on reading. Goal-Directed Persistence Following through on a task even when it gets hard A student keeps practicing piano every day, even when they’re frustrated. Sustained Attention Staying focused over time A child reads quietly for 25 minutes without getting distracted. Attention Shifting Moving focus from one task to another as needed A student transitions from free play to a structured classroom activity without melting down. Prioritization Identifying what’s most important and doing it first A child finishes their book report before choosing to organize their desk. Metacognition Thinking about your own thinking and behavior A teen realizes they’re getting distracted and moves to a quieter space. Mental Flexibility Trying a new method when stuck A student who usually draws their ideas switches to writing a bullet list when stuck. Delayed Gratification Choosing long-term goals over short-term desires A child saves their allowance for weeks to buy a more expensive toy instead of spending it immediately. Impulse Control Managing urges and reactions A child resists the urge to interrupt and raises their hand in class. Response Inhibition Pausing to consider the consequences before acting A teen starts to respond sarcastically but stops themselves, realizing it may hurt a friend’s feelings. Adaptability Adjusting to change or unexpected shifts A child handles a substitute teacher or a cancelled playdate without shutting down. Self-Talk/Internal Dialogue Using inner language to guide actions A child says quietly to themselves, “First math, then recess,” to stay focused.

Last updated Nov 15, 2022 2e News With a mission to maintain a fruitful conversation among key stakeholders to improve the lives of gifted students with learning differences, 2e News provides readers with high-level information and perspectives about twice-exceptional (2e) education and cognitive diversity. ​ The 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges The 2e Center is a first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary hub where professionals, scholars, and practitioners combine expertise to enhance understanding of the growing population of 2e students. ​ Belin-Blank Center Interested to learn more about the “Paradox of Twice-Exceptionality”? The University of Iowa College of Education’s Belin-Blank Center provides free, downloadable resources. ​ Twice Exceptionality: A Resource Guide for Parents The Davidson Institute for Talent Development released this awesome, free resource guide covering everything from the definition of 2e to the school experience and advocacy. ​ Understood Provides free, well-researched resources and videos to support parents of children with learning and attention issues, including those who are twice exceptional. ​ Bright & Quirky Summit Bright & Quirky eases the struggle for bright and quirky kids and parents, helps them self-actualize with the help of experts in the fields of mental health and education, and inspires the hope that new ideas and possibilities bring. The Bright & Quirky Summit 2019 brought together 30 leaders in the field, including Temple Grandin, Dr. Dan Peters, and Dr. Susan Baum. ​ 2e Resource Articles, advice from professionals, teaching strategies, newsletters and spotlight series, to help you better understand your twice-exceptional students and help them achieve success. Learnfully Educational support, academic tutoring, test prep, IEP support, and more for kids with learning differences.

Note: This piece was originally published in 2e news in 2021 . We have made a few slight modifications and are reprinting it here. Twice-exceptional students have few forums to express their lived educational experiences. Recently, we at Silicon Valley 2e advocacy group REEL launched our “Living & Learning 2e” blog series, which is dedicated to giving twice-exceptional teens and young adults a place to share their voices. The bloggers include students from ninth grade through sophomore year in college with a range of learning differences such as autism, ADHD, dysgraphia, and anxiety. While every 2e learner is different, common themes emerge across the six bloggers’ experiences that shine a light on ways educators can better support these neurodivergent students. On the Inside — What It Feels Like to Be 2e Many bloggers found that at first being 2e just felt “normal” because, of course, they didn’t know any different! Their twice-exceptionality is a part of who they are. However, their interior lives often became more difficult over time. Their behavior in early grades was often misunderstood by peers and teachers alike. As they entered the more academically and socially demanding secondary school years, their internal experiences became more stressful, ranging from frustration, paralyzing perfectionism, and embarrassment, to low self-esteem, feeling stupid or anxious, and like they had no future. Blogger Ava described her internal turmoil thusly: “I often found my hands resting on my keyboard and my eyes locked on the blinking cursor on Google Docs, unable to figure out what’s wrong. There are so many different perspectives running around my mind at once; deciding which one to listen to is the most time-consuming part of school work. This causes an issue with perfectionism, as I definitely can’t please every part of my mind with all the assignments I finish and tests I take. This leads to late work stacking up, incomplete tests that result in point deductions, more stress and panic, and a never-ending hole that slowly starts caving in.” For most of the bloggers, their internal experience shifted as they moved beyond adolescence, changed their educational environments, and encountered supportive teachers, all of which helped them embrace their neurodivergent profiles. The youngest contributor, Mike, observed, “I don’t want me being smart or me having disabilities to be part of who I am in any way possible.” Older twice-exceptional learners, however, have more fully integrated their 2e attributes into their way of being. As Noah said, “I hope that everywhere I go, I can help others realize that 2e people aren’t a joke, but more like superhumans held back by mental chains.” For the three young women who contributed to the series, actually getting a diagnosis altered their own understanding of their experiences. While every male blogger’s learning differences were identified in elementary school or earlier, the three female bloggers’ differences went undiagnosed until high school or later, leaving the students facing confusion in their earlier years that their diagnosis ultimately helped to clarify. As an example, with a better understanding of her autistic profile, Lucy evolved from a “level of perfectionism that was intensely debilitating. I was terrified of letting it go because it was also one of my greatest strengths,” to having “a framework to understand the atypical, sometimes pathological, but still pretty cool workings of my mind. … Knowing that I was autistic gave me the confidence to make decisions based on what was best for me rather than what seemed normal.” The Best Teacher — Ever When prompted to describe their best teacher, several similar characteristics emerge: flexibility, kindness, and understanding. The bloggers’ most effective teachers were non-threatening, nonjudgmental, and offered unconditional support. These teachers modified or shortened homework assignments or allowed homework to be turned in by the end of the term instead of on constant, tight deadlines; offered clear class assignments and a willingness to answer questions; took time to talk with students after class and during office hours; prevented ridicule by both teachers and other students; and celebrated achievements. These 2e learners appreciated when these strategies were implemented for everyone in the classroom as part of the community norm. In addition, bloggers Serena and Noah, both of whom have ADHD, noticed that the teachers who were most helpful for them also have ADHD, perhaps bringing more empathy and less judgment to their students’ experience. Help — It Makes All the Difference Teachers must proactively reach out to students. Although students should aim to connect with their teachers, many students believe it isn’t acceptable to ask for help or are embarrassed by the ways their schools offer help. For instance, Ava recalled this experience in high school: “In 10th grade, I was placed in a class focused on helping underperforming students organize their schoolwork and learn more efficient study skills. I was embarrassed to be in the class and tried everything I could to get out of being placed there. I wouldn’t admit to anyone that I was taking the class and would actively avoid being seen walking toward the classroom out of fear of being made fun of for not being as ‘normal’ as my peers. Why do we think it’s bad to get help when struggling?” However, once Ava had the chance to experience dual enrollment through her school’s Middle College program (where she was part of a cohort of high school students taking community college courses), she learned the power of establishing close relationships with her teachers. “My teachers didn’t make me feel like the letters on my transcript defined my self worth,” she said. “Instead, they reached their caring hands outward and offered an amount of help I had never experienced before. “Asking for help and admitting that you can’t do something on your own takes strength and should be commended.” Listen Up — Advice for Teachers The 2e bloggers’ advice for teachers runs the gamut from general attitudes and specific classroom procedures to school-wide policies. They center around these themes: Be flexible, be patient, be accepting . Listen to students and ask them as individuals what help they need to remove barriers to learning . Serena emphasized, “It’s incredibly important to both discuss our ‘disabilities’ and how they actually affect us, not just how you think they do. ADHD goes so much beyond ‘can’t sit, can’t do work, must go zoom zoom.’ I hate to break it to you, but that’s not ADHD. That’s my cat .” Acknowledge students’ challenges and strengths; don’t invalidate their struggles . Serena said, “We’re not trying to intentionally act out or underperform — please never jump to conclusions or purposely invalidate our struggles. Just because a student may appear outwardly high-achieving doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t need any extra support (we’ve learned to mask this and often compensate in terrible ways!).” Let students explore their interests . Give them choices for projects and creative freedom to demonstrate their knowledge beyond the standard essay or test. Ava said, “I learned so much more when I was allowed to do a project I was motivated to complete. It’s challenging and sometimes impossible to accommodate every student’s needs, but making it clear that you’re there to help come up with ways for students to feel confident in the material is crucial.” Understand that even the brightest students may have a learning difference , meaning their accommodations are essential but also won’t automatically solve their challenges. Mike observed that once he had an accommodation for his dysgraphia that allowed him to type rather than handwrite assignments, “all of the other problems weren’t magically fixed. Things just aren’t designed for me.” Provide clear, step-by-step instructions as well as samples of class projects, and then check in with students to ensure they understand assignments. Mike wrote that his best teachers “are the ones who communicate clearly and make sure I understand what I need to be doing.” Adopt policies using standards-based grading that reflect mastery of learning objectives instead of focusing on completion of homework assignments. This could include excusing homework when mastery has been demonstrated (through an assessment, final project, etc.), allowing for shortened assignments, and/or accepting late homework without penalty whenever possible. Chris said, “Even more days to turn in assignments doesn’t help with being perpetually behind, which inhibits learning the content. If I’ve scored well on an exam but am behind in assignments, allow the flexibility to just let me move on, since I’ve shown mastery of the content.” If you suspect a child may have an undiagnosed learning disability or mental wellness challenge, please advocate on their behalf for an evaluation , even for high schoolers. As Serena said, “I only wish I could tell them about the psychological trauma and internalized inferiority that comes from being undiagnosed for so long.” Hopes for the Future — 2e Empowerment The bloggers envision a brighter future for living and learning. The pandemic has created more widespread acceptance of alternative teaching methods and online learning. In some cases, there has been more freedom to work at one’s pace and more flexibility afforded to students. While there is no magical cure-all, the bloggers sense that change is possible, and several have made a commitment to increase awareness of twice-exceptionality and neurodiversity. For example, Serena launched the NeurodiverCity website with a vision to eliminate misconceptions, reduce stigma, and establish a supportive community of neurodiverse individuals. Spotlight on Equity — A Call to Action Of the six contributors to the Living & Learning 2e series, three are still in high school (two at private schools and one other at a charter school); two graduated from private high schools; one finished high school as part of a dual-enrollment program; and one did not graduate. Lucy acknowledged that she, as well as many of the 2e bloggers, was “exceedingly lucky to have gone to a school that, instead of adding stress and anxiety to my life, helped me do the things I love, even as I struggled with severe illness. At my lowest points, school didn’t intensify my misery. It gave me a reason to keep going.” This raises important questions: What if no schools in your area will support learning differences or twice-exceptionality? What if your community doesn’t offer a better-fit charter or dual-enrollment program? Or your parents don’t have the resources (e.g., time, financial, English language skills) to advocate year after year on your behalf? Notwithstanding these six teens’ experiences, more often than not, 2e students attend public schools and rely on their teachers to help them to learn and grow. Given this, Noah suggests there is work to do. “We need more awareness on who and what a 2e student is, as too many people are living their lives believing that they are just dumb or don’t have what it takes,” he said. “Those people need help, not to correct their problems, but to help overcome them.” Otherwise, we miss out on 2e learners’ tremendous potential, which Ava described as “insane amounts of creativity, the ability to see things in a way that ‘regular’ people can’t, empathy, determination, enough knowledge to fill a library, and layer after layer of unseen talent.” Authors’ note: REEL thanks Ava , Chris , Lucy , Mike , Noah , and Serena for their time and willingness to share their personal experiences. Know someone who would like to contribute to the REEL Living & Learning 2e blog series? Email hello@reelpaloalto.org to get involved.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.” - Henry David Thoreau You’ve just gotten the ‘official’ word - your child is dyslexic, or has ADHD, or is autistic. Perhaps they’re gifted as well, and the psychologist used the term twice-exceptional (2e), which sounds to you like a euphemism for some other dreadful thing you’ve now got to understand. You’re in fix-it mode, scrambling to figure out what to do next. You may even have some grief. Welcome to the journey. I’ve been there. And I’m here to tell you now to pause. Take a deep breath. It’s time now, right from the beginning, to recognize everything that is great about this new world you’ve found yourself in. I’m here to tell you ‘congratulations.’ Really. For three reasons: Reason #1 - people who are different are AWESOME. Jonathan Mooney said it best with the title of his book, “Normal Sucks.” Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is more than just a rant about ‘normal’ vs. something else. In fact, what he is teaching us with this book is something fundamentally critical - that we really are all different and there is no such thing as ‘normal.’ But it is also critically important that you know that there are incredible traits associated with these diagnosis labels of which you might not be aware. For instance, many dyslexics credit their dyslexia for their enhanced visual-spatial abilities, including Dr. Beryl Benacerraf, who attributes her success as a radiologist to her dyslexia, writing, “I live in a world of patterns and images and I see things that no one else sees.” Dr. Ned Hallowell, an expert on ADHD, describes ADHD individuals as having “ferrari brains.” Both dyslexics and ADHD individuals are very often extremely creative and charismatic leaders and as such make fabulous and successful entrepreneurs. Autistic people tend to be honest, logical thinkers whose passion for their interests and attention to detail are incredible assets. Much of this has to do with the unique brain wiring of neurodivergent people. But I believe it is also attributable to the second and third reasons this is such great news: Reason #2 - diagnoses are empowering. This diagnosis is like a flashlight illuminating your child’s path. Think for a moment about your current professional life, and what it took for you to get where you are today. Was it a straight path directly from your childhood to your current level of success? For most of us, the path isn’t straight. It’s full of twists and turns, ups and downs, side careers, and detours. Because here’s the thing - anyone who think that success looks like this: Is most likely only just down at the beginning: Now that you know what the path will look like, you’re ready to embark on a meaningful and directed partnership with your child, school, and community. Which brings me to the third reason: Reason #3 - challenges breed resilience! Imagine for a moment that you want to train for a marathon, and you have two practice tracks you have to choose from: Which road would be better for you to train on? The squiggly one of course! Training there is going to be awesome - having all of that road to travel will be great exercise! You’ll get so fit! You’ll get so much more training in and be so much better prepared than if you just had that measly straight line. Sure it will be hard; training successfully will require grit, determination, perseverance, and resilience. But these are traits that we want for our children, and that we recognize will make successful adults. It’s great to have as squiggly a line as possible - because it means you’re going to have a ton of opportunities to flex that grit and determination, perseverance and resilience. As parents of - and individuals with - these squiggly paths, you’re going to need grit and resilience. Because for you the path may not just be squiggly... Source: University of Texas at Austin Graduate School: Studying Knots and Four-Dimensional Spaces ...it may be more like a four-dimensional knot from a graduate mathematics dissertation! I believe in this very strongly! How strongly, you ask? So strongly that I have “Ad astra per aspera” tattooed on my feet. I first heard this phrase in my 6th grade Latin class, which translates as “to the stars through difficulties." Ad astra per aspera has resonated with me all my life, and in 2017 I had it tattooed on my feet, so that I could see it each day, as I put one foot in front of the other. Your children have awesome gifts. Knowledge is empowerment. And your journey will breed resilience, which translates to success. So let’s get to it! Now that we’re excited to start navigating our road, head over to part 2 of this series, where we will dive into how to start building your own roadmaps for this journey.

The Hard Things Are Easy and the Easy Things Are Hard Many 2e children experience a mismatch between what the world expects them to be able to do and what actually comes easily. A child may struggle with “easy” tasks like tying shoes or organizing a backpack, while soaring in “hard” areas like mental math or storytelling. This reversal can lead to frustration, misunderstanding, and burnout—for kids and caregivers alike. Activity: Flipping Expectations Use the chart below to reflect on your child, student, or someone you support: "Hard" Things That Are Easy "Easy" Things That Are Hard After filling it out, take a moment to reflect on how much time and energy you focus on the “easy” things that are hard vs the “hard” things that are easy. Too often, parents and educators spend most of their energy trying to "fix" what isn't working.  What if instead we: Scaffolded “easy” tasks instead of forcing readiness and let go of timelines that don’t fit our kids? Rather than expecting kids to meet typical timelines for everyday tasks, we offer support that meets them where they are. Using checklists, modeling, or tools that align with their strengths (like visual cues for visual thinkers), we honor their unique pace. A neuro-affirming, strength-based approach reminds us that independence grows through support, not pressure. Focused more time and energy nurturing strengths ?  It is critical for parents and educators to take the time to understand what lights a child up and sustains them, and then to provide each child with opportunities to spend time in those spaces every day. Making sure kids know what they’re great at, and giving them time to do it and share it builds their self-efficacy and self-confidence. Not only does it give them time to hone and improve themselves, doing something they enjoy makes them feel good. Research shows that these types of positive experiences help build a wellspring of inner resources that an individual can draw upon throughout their lives, as well as improves their ability to attend to executive function, emotional regulation, and social attention in the here and now. Print out a pdf chart to fill out:

As the school year winds down and summer begins, it’s natural to reflect on the past year—its challenges, milestones, and surprises. For families raising neurodivergent children, that reflection can often feel weighted toward what was hard. But here’s a powerful shift: What if we used this transition to focus on strengths instead? At REEL2e and Young Scholars Academy, we believe a strength-based, talent-focused approach isn’t just feel-good language—it’s a foundation for helping our kids thrive. Why It Matters Strength-based conversations build confidence and self-worth. They highlight what your child can  do—not just what’s hard. They spark curiosity, motivation, and joyful learning. They shift your family from surviving to thriving. Start the Conversation Try these 5 reflection questions to help your child celebrate growth (from Sam Young’s article Questions to help your 2e child identify their unique strengths ): What are you most proud of from this year? What’s something new you learned or did that surprised you? What activity made you feel strong, smart, or excited? When did you help someone—or when did someone help you? What’s one thing you want to get even better at next year? These questions help your child see how far they’ve come—and where their strengths shine through. “Where the Mind Goes, Energy Flows” What we focus on grows. Neurodivergent kids often dwell on struggles because that’s where the feedback lands. But when we guide their focus toward strengths, they feel empowered and energized. Summer Strength-Building Activities Summer is the perfect time to lean into what lights your child up—while building real skills in fun, low-pressure ways. From “I forget everything” to “I think in pictures” Activity:  Create a visual calendar or checklist for summer routines, camps, or trips using drawings, colors, or photos.  Reframe with:   “How could we draw or design our summer plans so they’re easier to remember?” From “I can’t write essays” to “I tell great stories” Activity:  Turn storytelling into a summer project—record a podcast, draw a comic book, or create a narrated slideshow.  Reframe with:   “What story do you love to tell that we could turn into something fun this summer?” These activities reframe challenges while building planning, communication, and creative thinking. Everyday Reframes & Strength-Based Prompts Try these simple prompts to shift your child’s focus from struggle to strength: “What part of this feels fun, even just a little?” “What do you already know that could help here?” “When did you feel ‘in the zone’ this week?” “If you were the teacher, how would you teach this in a fun way?” Want More Strength-Based Support? Young Scholars Academy  is a virtual, strength-based village where 2e, gifted, and neurodivergent kids thrive. Explore classes:   youngscholarsacademy.org  Use code YSAREEL10  for 10% off all classes. REEL2e  is proud to support families in discovering strengths , building skills, and growing a connected community.

One evening, I was sitting at home, in a rare moment of quiet before bed, and realized I'd been spending almost all my time, energy, and resources supporting my children, and I was spent. W e parents often spend more energy, time and resources supporting our twice-exceptional (2e) children than we do on managing other aspects of our lives. We do so with deep love and an unquestionable commitment, but I imagine we all agree that it can be exhausting and sometimes depleting.  Over the past three and a half years, I’ve connected with many parents of 2e children, and I’ve learned that we parents are also on our own individual journeys, learning how best to support the rest of the family and ourselves. Each of our experiences is unique–even within a parent partnership–and, while community is incredibly helpful, at times it can still feel isolating.  While I don’t have a playbook to provide, I hope sharing my own journey in supporting my amazing and complex 2e tween will be a gentle reminder that we’re all in this together–on this ride of both challenges and joy. Even during each of our unique journeys, we’ll likely find ourselves going through a handful of similar experiences: identifying the right supports for our kids; dealing with parental guilt; processing this life chapter; and embracing progress. Identifying the right supports for each child For many, our journeys in parenting 2e children begin with getting a 2e diagnosis in the first place. Even before my son’s clinical diagnosis, my husband and I recognized he needed more support than we were able to provide. With his self-esteem rapidly decreasing, and his growing negative attitude towards school, we sought a therapist for him. After interviewing over a half dozen, we found one. Naively, we smiled and whispered to each other, “Yay, us!” After a few months of sessions, his therapist recommended we have him evaluated.   He was nine years old then. His evaluation confirmed what his therapist and his third grade teacher suspected: He’s gifted. This is when we also learned about his unspecified high anxiety disorder. Additionally, like many other kiddos with his profile, his evaluation identified several other strengths and challenges. This began a new chapter in our journey with him and in my own journey as a parent and an adult, meaning I had (and still have) my own “stuff” to manage along the way.  Dealing with parental guilt  Most of us parents are already plenty familiar with parental guilt…am I right? Parenting a 2e child amplifies it, with 20/20 hindsight as the common lever of choice. Looking back over the years, I ruminated, how did I miss so many signs, and what type of damage will those misses create? There was that evening when my son expressed with remarkable clarity and insistence that he no longer wanted to receive the Principal’s Award at school, which is given out to different students each month, because the event created tremendous dread in him as he walked to the stage and stood in front of the school to receive it. Then there was that time he wrung his hands so hard as he apologized to a car owner for accidently scratching the car with his bike that I was worried about him hurting himself. What kind of mother was I to miss all these signs and so many more? I judged myself with verdicts such as: I’m his mother, I should have known better. I should have done something sooner. I should have avoided certain situations.  The “should-haves” layered on even more guilt. I’m grateful to my circle of close friends and therapy sessions to help me work through many of these periods. A few times, I apologized to my son for something I had missed that led to discomfort for him. I held back on offering the rest of my hundreds of apologies to him because I realized they were more for me than him. Instead, they stayed swirling inside me, chasing after the guilt, followed by disappointment, frustration and grief. Usually, after a good cry or solid run, I could recognize that I can’t change the past, but I have the resources to help him now.  In other words, we’re all doing the best we can. Processing this life chapter   I was overwhelmed by trying to understand all the results of my son’s evaluation, which included many other strengths and challenges. As much as my husband and I yearned to address them all at once, we came to the painful realization that juggling them just wasn’t practical. Luckily, I reconnected with a friend from graduate school, who has a son with a similar profile and shared a wealth of wisdom. And when I learned about REEL almost six months later, I felt less alone within its incredibly supportive community.  Thanks to additional resources like Tilt Parenting , Mona Delahooke’s Brain-Body Parenting  and The Highly Sensitive Child  by Elaine Aron, my husband and I began to deepen our understanding of the diagnoses and clearly map out a plan (or, as we quickly learned, a version of many, on which we continue to iterate to this day!) for how to support him effectively. Even with the plan, I’ll admit that I continue to experience a mix of discouragement, overwhelm, underwhelm, inspiration, dead ends and a-ha’s. After learning how anxiety can hinder learning and executive functioning, I decided to prioritize anxiety, but of course it wasn’t that straightforward. What about his increasingly negative attitude towards school–towards learning? He’s an incredibly curious child, who absolutely loves learning, so we needed to help him enjoy school again. I decided that supporting his giftedness was a very close second priority. Juggling two big areas, while daunting, seemed sort of doable. As a result of all my research, I identified the most impactful areas to address first: sleep, catastrophizing and transitions. I also met with his teachers and the leadership at his school to try to better support his needs on campus. Like many decisions my husband and I have made for our children, intuition and science danced (and even argued) with each other. At times, the clinical data was disturbingly sparse, with emotionally convincing stories giving us hope. Other times, the data was super clear (thank goodness!). Nevertheless, sometimes with concrete evidence staring at me, I knew the recommended approach would not be a fit for him.   Over time, I’ve become increasingly confident in my ability to get  my son and provide what we think works best for him. I beat myself up when the chosen path doesn’t work as expected. I beg for patience and flexibility (with my son, husband and even myself), when the variables need to be tweaked a few times before we try another tool. (Can we try a heavier weighted blanket? Can we try a different meditation app? What about journaling?) When the outcome is positive, I quickly move on to the next area that needs attention.    Recognizing and embracing progress I know I need to take care of myself and at the very least pause for a little pat on the back. I do try to do this, but I admit to very quickly veering towards my son’s and my family’s needs. I’d love to end this story by declaring that my son now has control over his anxiety. I’d love to be able to stand tall and say, “We figured out everything my son needs, and we delivered!” Indeed, we’ve helped him. He’s even starting to help himself, by identifying resources and developing a solid toolkit. Let’s face it: His disorder means he’ll most likely always have to manage his anxiety, so he can live the life he wants. He’s come a long way. He sleeps much better, in terms of both quantity and quality. He’s learned to use tactics like looking at a person’s forehead, instead of their eyes, when he speaks with them. With these small and not-so-small victories, his confidence in experiencing the world has grown.  And as he changes and matures, and we learn more about him, we continue to uncover other aspects of his anxiety that we need to support. I always have an eye towards what’s next. I will say that part of my own journey has been to make a point of identifying the wins and progress, even if I do so while brushing my teeth before bed or as I observe my son diligently swimming laps outside in rain and cold–something he does with great interest, willingness and commitment, in any weather, which has been surprising and really heartening to watch. As he finds the things he enjoys and wants to pursue, I’m trying to remind myself to take time to celebrate those things, as I work to support them. I think the key for all of us parents trying to raise joyful, kind, healthy 2e kids is to really celebrate incremental progress. Write it down; take a picture; record it. Your child did that; you helped them; and you utilized the great resources available to help make progress. If we do a better job of intentionally celebrating our progress, we’ll have more energy when we go back to the drawing board and move on to the next challenge.  Just last week, because of road work, I had to drop my son off pretty far from the usual entrance to his swim practice, along a relatively busy road. In the past, such a last minute change would have created major angst and hesitation in him.  Internally, I kind of freaked out but as calmly as I could, I told him about the change and asked if he was ok finding his way from the temporary drop-off point to the pool. He said yes, very calmly. After practice, I saw him emerge from the detour with confidence and focus to find me. He had a great practice, too! Not a big win—but progress. Susan Tahir serves as Treasurer on the REEL Board of Directors. She has two children at home, including her 2e tween. She has over 15 years of experience building product and managing strategic alliances at startups and Fortune 500 companies. She previously served on the Board of Holt International Children’s Services. Susan earned her BA in International Studies from The American University and her MBA from the University of Michigan Business School. ​​She’s an endurance athlete, squeezing in marathons for now.  Some of the resources I’ve found helpful: For Parents: Brain-Body Parenting  by Mona Delahooke Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD: A Scientifically Proven Program for Parents  by Eli Lebowitz The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping Our Children Thrive When The World Overwhelms Them  by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D.  Living with Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults , edited by Susan Daniels & Michael M. Piechowski  The Neurodiversity Podcast  (Emily Kircher-Morris) Scaffold Parenting  by Harold Koplewicz Tilt Parenting  podcast (Debbie Reber) For Children: Find Your Calm: A Mindful Approach To Relieve Anxiety And Grow Your Bravery (Growing Heart & Minds)   by Gabi Garcia & Marta Pineda   Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year  by Andrea Beaty Under Pressure: The Science of Stress   by Tanya Lloyd Kyi & Marie-Ève Tremblay