Understanding 2e and Self-Regulation (Part 1 of 4) As part of REEL’s mission is to ensure Silicon Valley twice-exceptional students thrive in school by raising parent and educator awareness and understanding of practical, research-based strategies to address their needs successfully, we host quarterly topical Facilitated Small Group Discussions . We launched our first group in Fall 2024 focused on the topic of emotional regulation and twice-exceptional learners.  During these sessions, the participants dive deeply into topics of interest to caregivers of twice-exceptional children; the intimate setting allows for rich conversation and support to take place. We want to extend the learnings from these small group sessions to our entire community. After each quarterly group, we hope to publish a summary of the key insights.  Our first article in this series on the topic of 2e/Emotional Regulation (below) provides an Introduction to Twice-Exceptionality and Emotional Regulation. Our second article covers A 3-Step Pathway to Better Regulation Management. The third article dives into the Importance of Co-Regulation. The last article presents real-life situations and also includes a Reference and Resource List if you’d like to learn more. Prefer to read this straight through in one easy-to-print format? Check out this downloadable version . “Kids do well if they can.”  -Dr. Ross Greene Introduction Parenting a twice-exceptional (2e) child is a unique and rewarding journey, often accompanied by challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating. 2e children navigate a world that doesn’t always recognize or support their complex profiles. As caregivers, we’re called to advocate for, nurture them, and guide them through this journey, often learning as we go. We chose to address emotional regulation as the focused topic of our first Facilitated Discussion Group because 75% of the respondents to our Annual REEL Community Survey said that this was an important area. Within this resource, you will find research-backed insights, practical advice, and a curated collection of tools around self-regulation to address the most common challenges faced by 2e families.  We aim to offer a starting point with ideas that you can revisit, knowing that developing self-regulation takes time and practice to learn about and master. Connection and grace are key underpinnings to REEL’s work. We understand that no two 2e children—or their families—are alike. That’s why we’ve included contributions from experienced professionals and the lived experiences of parents who “get it,” including a blending of real-life stories from the parents who participated in our recent small group sessions. You are not alone, and we hope that we will be a trusted companion as you advocate for and celebrate your 2e child’s unique brilliance. Whether you are new to the concept of twice-exceptionality or have been navigating this path for years, our goal is to empower you with tools, strategies, and connections to help your child develop essential skills and thrive—academically, emotionally, and socially. We invite you to explore, share, and return to this guide as a source of inspiration and support. Together, as a community of families, educators, and advocates, we can help create a world where twice-exceptional children are recognized, understood, and empowered to reach their full potential. A Quick Overview of Twice-Exceptional (2e) and Self-Regulation: Understanding 2e and Self-Regulation Self-regulation is a complex concept that is defined in many ways. It is often referred to in discussions about how to manage emotions, behaviors, and reactions to various stimuli that could lead to a stress response. 2e children’s (and 2e adult’s!) experience of self-regulation may be more complex and unique compared to their neurotypical peers. Let’s start with an introduction to these concepts. For more general information on twice-exceptionality, we recommend these resources: REEL Resources: Intro to 2e Video: How to Support 2e Learners: The DEAR REEL Model Video: What is Twice Exceptional?  (Seth Perler, 2018) Bridges 2e Center for Research and Development Twice-Exceptional Learners 2e Handbook  (Fairfax County Public Schools - Virginia) What Makes 2e Children Unique? 2e children possess remarkable strengths that set them apart, including: Exceptional abilities in one or more academic subjects. Advanced cognitive skills, such as strong memory, attention to detail, or high verbal abilities. Intense curiosity and drive to learn in areas of personal interest. Remarkable creative abilities that often lead to innovative thinking. At the same time, 2e children frequently face significant challenges in more traditional environments due to neurodevelopmental conditions like dyslexia, ADHD, or autism. Baum et al. (2017) introduced the metaphor of “green” to describe 2e children. This metaphor represents the blend of “yellow” strengths and “blue” challenges that interact simultaneously. 2e individuals’ strengths and challenges combine and interact, requiring support which differs from those with only one of these exceptionalities. Understanding this dynamic is essential to supporting 2e children in developing self-regulation strategies that work for their unique needs, taking into consideration their often asynchronous development of cognitive abilities, executive function, and social-emotional skills. Example: A lion is always in the room. A dyslexic, 2e child may genuinely enjoy a story when a teacher reads aloud to the class, and even participate in deep and creative discussions in complex and nuanced ways. Still, the knowledge that they may need to complete other related tasks, such as read the rest of the story themselves, complete spelling tests on the vocabulary, write an essay on the story, or read out loud to the class, can cause deep stress. The child experiences BOTH the joy of learning and despair of failure and humiliation, at the same time. To their brain and nervous system, it’s like a lion is constantly lurking nearby, waiting to pounce. This joy of learning, coupled with the fear and exhaustion around the challenges associated with their neurodivergence, is a common experience for many 2e children. How do they learn to regulate these strong emotions and feelings that they are constantly bombarded with? Especially when, in addition to their 2e profile, they are children whose brains are still developing? What is Self-Regulation? Self-regulation is a complex concept. Because there is a wealth of information available about self-regulation and strategies for improving it, we provide a summarized glimpse into the concept, simplified for ease of understanding and practical application with 2e children and families. Self-regulation is a skill we leverage across many areas of our lives in different ways. For the purpose of our small group discussions, we looked at definitions like Raising Children  of Australia’s: “Self-regulation is the ability to understand and manage your behaviour and your reactions to feelings and things happening around you.”  From there, we discussed Dr. Stuart Shanker, a researcher and professor emeritus from York University in Canada, who developed the Self-Reg Model. He has written many best-selling books on the topic, describing self-regulation as “managing stress and energy levels to thrive.” The Self-Reg framework is a robust model featuring five practices that support self-regulation offering a deeper lens for exploring stress through five interconnected domains  that influence stress levels: biological, emotional, cognitive, social, and prosocial.  And then we came to Autism Level Up , which shifts from a frame of self-regulation to energy regulation, recognizing that each person will have their own, individual emotional response to environments, situations, and triggers, and that children can learn to understand and attend to their energy in these various situations. For instance, the self-regulation and energy demands a person needs for a trip to an amusement park differ greatly from a visit to the library.  For twice-exceptional (2e) children, self-regulation and energy management can be particularly challenging due to the constant interplay between their strengths and struggles. When life situations are both too hard and too easy at the same time; when their tendency toward perfectionism clashes with lagging skills; or their ability to articulate at length about an area of interest while struggling to write for a class assignment, frustration and stress will likely be the result.  Ready to learn more? The second article in this series covers a 3-Step Pathway to Better Regulation Management. The third article dives into the importance of Co-Regulation between caregiver and child. The fourth and final article presents Real-Life Examples and Scenarios and also includes a Reference and Resource List. Prefer to read the full set of articles in one easy-to-print format? Check out this downloadable version . Teresa Nair, M. Ed., has a Master's in Cognitive Diversity in Education and a Certificate in Twice-Exceptional Education from Bridges Graduate School, along with over 20 years of experience in education and business. Teresa is a passionate advocate for supporting families and neurodivergent children. Her extensive background and innovative work reflect her deep commitment to creating inclusive and neurodivergent positive environments. As a neurodivergent individual herself, Teresa combines empathy with expertise, offering valuable insights, resources, and support to help both parents and children navigate educational journeys with confidence and understanding. You can email Teresa at Teresa@reel2e.org .

Twice exceptionality, and autism specifically, presents unique challenges when it comes to writing. Autistic and 2e students may struggle to understand ambiguous instructions, and weak Theory of Mind (i.e., perspective taking) can make it tricky to imagine how a reader will respond to a draft. More generally, the whole writing process can feel abstract and overwhelmingly open-ended.  Through my work as a tutor, I’ve developed lots of strategies to navigate these challenges. Here are some of my favorites. The challenge: Taking another person’s perspective Autism is characterized by impaired Theory of Mind, or difficulty seeing from another person’s perspective. When writing, autistic students often struggle to sort out what their reader would and wouldn’t know about a given topic. I’ve noticed that autistic students sometimes: Forget to spell out acronyms Assume that specific knowledge is common knowledge (e.g., that everyone will know the rules of a fairly obscure video game) Use pronouns or vague terms (“this,” “it,” “the thing”), not realizing that a reader won’t understand what they’re referring to The solution: Map out what the reader knows We can take the mystery out of perspective-taking by explicitly laying out the reader’s knowledge. Here’s how I might talk through this chart with a student: Lucy:  Okay, you’re writing a college essay that will be read by admissions officers. If the reader has never met you, will they know that Claire is your friend? Student: I don’t know. Lucy: I’m going to say probably not. There are a lot of Claires out there. What about RC? Will they know that acronym? Student:  Maybe not. Lucy: Yeah, I wasn’t sure what that meant, either. But will they know what a robotics club is if you spell it out? Student: I think a lot of schools have robotics clubs. Lucy:  I think so, too. We might end up with something like this: The reader WILL know… The reader WON’T know… -What robotics is -That I’m in high school -That I’m applying to college -What STEM stands for -What RC stands for (unless I spell it out) -Names of specific people -Super specific robotics terminology The challenge: Open-endedness Open-endedness is hard, especially for autistic people. A question like, “How are you?” can have dozens of accurate answers. The instructions to “choose a current event and analyze it” could be followed a million different ways, and often, the sheer range of possibilities is so overwhelming that students become paralyzed. The solution: Narrow down the options To help solve this issue, I drew inspiration from an unlikely source: standardized tests. I started switching from an open-ended to a multiple-choice answer format, constraining students’ responses to a finite set of options. Here’s how I might do this with the open-ended prompt, “Write about your experience on the robotics team.” Multiple choice:   Which of the following skills did you develop through robotics? Collaboration Persistence Creative problem-solving Making sure all the robots are switched off after each practice so they don’t take over the school Agree/disagree:   How would you rate the statement, “Robotics club taught me the importance of teamwork?” agree neutral disagree Ratings:  On a scale of zero to 10, where zero is “not at all” and 10 is the most possible, how much has robotics club taught you about teamwork? A note on implementation:  There are a few ways to use this strategy: A teacher, tutor, or parent could reformat the questions without input from the student. A teacher/tutor/parent could collaborate with the student to reformat the questions. The student could reformat the questions independently. The first time you try this approach, I would recommend method one (a support person providing options). Having the student generate the answer options would defeat the purpose of the exercise, the idea being that the student is struggling to write without scaffolding. But if this strategy becomes a go-to and the student consistently finds it helpful, they could absolutely learn to reformat questions on their own. AI can be a fantastic resource here, too: The challenge: Difficulty conjuring words Pulling words out of thin air is hard. You could think of this as another iteration of the open-endedness problem. There are so many words out there. How do you know which ones to choose? The solution: Follow sentence patterns Mad-Libs isn’t just a great way to teach parts of speech; it’s also a highly underrated writing strategy. Mad-Libs constraints options, and it turns writing into a logic puzzle. Lay out a few different sentence templates, then have students fill in the blanks to make their own sentences: The author’s core argument is that ______. They give the example of _______ to demonstrate (that) ______. This quote highlights ________. By pointing out ______, the author calls our attention to _______. Mad-Libs-style prompts can also help students understand different sentence structures–without the need for complex grammar terminology. I have students practice combining and separating sentences according to different patterns. As with the previous strategy, I would start by having a teacher/tutor/parent provide the sentence patterns so the student can focus on filling in the blanks or combining sentences. When they feel more comfortable doing so, students can begin to generate Mad-Libs themselves. Pattern #1: Coordinating Conjunctions Sentence + sentence Clause + conjunction + clause The music stopped.  The crowd went wild. The music stopped, and  the crowd went wild. Sasha Trusova landed five quads at the Olympics.  Sasha Trusova did not finish in first place. Sasha Trusova landed five quads at the Olympics, but  she did not finish in first place. I am obsessed with figure skating.  My family is not. I am obsessed with figure skating, but  my family is not. Pattern #2: Appositives Sentence + sentence Subject + appositive + clause Ilia Malinin is an American skater.  Ilia Malinin made headlines when he landed a quad axel. Ilia Malinin, an American skater, made headlines when he landed a quad axel. The quad Axel is a jump with four and a half rotations. A quad Axel has a base value of 12.5 points. The quad Axel, a jump with four and a half rotations, has a base value of 12.5 points What it looks like in practice These three strategies can help transform ambiguous, open-ended writing prompts into concrete puzzles to solve. I think of the strategies as tools, not rigid instructions. I’d highly recommend tweaking and playing around with them until you find something that works. Here are some concrete examples of how you might use them while supporting an autistic student. Assignment #1: Write a paragraph about how you spent your summer (elementary school). Make a checklist of summer activities and have the student check off what they did. Provide Mad-Libs-style sentence starters to help organize ideas: “This summer, I…”/“I especially enjoyed…”/ “First/next/last…” Sketch out what the audience (fellow classmates) do and don’t know. Add clarification to the writing accordingly (“Jimmy is my younger brother”). Assignment #2: Write a paper analyzing a collection of poems. Make multiple-choice lists of literary devices studied in the class. Use those to identify devices in the poems. Turn the assignment instructions into Mad-Libs-style statements: Provide historical context regarding the poet. → The poet was born in ______ and belongs to the ______ literary movement. Describe a major theme in the poem and explain how it’s conveyed. → The poet conveys the theme of ________ by ________. Close-read the poems. → The use of the words _______ and ______ suggests ______. Make a “what does the reader know?” chart for the historical context section, separating common knowledge from topic-specific knowledge. About Lucy: I graduated from Stanford in 2024 with a degree in psychology and Slavic Studies. I currently live in Boston and work as a writing tutor with a focus on supporting 2e/neurodivergent students. I've been involved in the neurodiversity world since I was diagnosed with autism at age 18. I hope to pursue a PhD in psychology and develop evidence-based interventions to help neurodivergent students write. For tutoring inquiries, please check out my website !

Humans aren’t great at being objective. We underestimate  the effects of the environment on people’s behavior, and we overestimate  the degree to which others share our beliefs. We see  patterns in randomness, and we favor  information that fits what we already think. In short, our minds produce all sorts of distorted notions, many of which don’t reflect reality. This observation lies at the heart of cognitive behavioral therapy, one of the best-known, best-studied psychotherapy modalities. CBT has been proven effective  in treating a range of mental health conditions, and CBT techniques can come in handy in writing, too. I first became aware of my own distorted writing thoughts during a particularly brutal long-term project. I was writing my psychology honors thesis, and I had naively assumed that I would have a draft finished by mid-December. By February, I was still struggling with the introduction. The writing itself was hard enough, but that difficulty was further compounded by my thoughts: I’m terrible at writing. I’ll never be able to do this. I never do anything right. I might as well give up, since this project is basically a failure. Were any of these true, though? I had thought, “I’ll never do this” about every major writing project, and my mentors didn’t believe that the thesis was a failure. Did my thoughts reflect reality, or were they simply the product of my negative emotions? As I paid more attention to my distorted beliefs, I started noticing them in my students, too. I began to experiment with incorporating CBT techniques into tutoring, pointing out extreme thoughts and developing more balanced alternatives. I’ve found that the following four distortions crop up over and over. Distortion #1: All-or-nothing thinking I’m a good writer, or I’m a bad one. I can’t do it, or I can. This is easy, or it’s hard. These dichotomies are rarely accurate, and they can amplify unhelpful emotions. The words “never” and “always” are helpful clues. When you hear them, you can usually be sure that all-or-nothing thinking is at play. Distortion #2: Jumping to conclusions Within about a minute of opening an assignment, “Max” (a pseudonym) decided that he couldn’t do it. The task was too hard, he’d undoubtedly fail, and there was no point even trying. I said–a little jokingly–that I was impressed by his ability to see into the future. It was amazing that he could know exactly how the assignment would go. Was he clairvoyant in other areas, too? Maybe he should be a magician. I wouldn’t take this gentle teasing approach with everyone, but Max and I have known each other for a long time, and I knew he’d appreciate the humor. He smiled and rolled his eyes and conceded that yeah, maybe he should read a little more of the instructions before coming to such a definitive conclusion. As it turned out, the assignment was not too hard, Max didn’t fail, and it took far less time than he expected. Funny how these things go… Distortion #3: Emotional reasoning Emotions have a way of coloring our view of the world. When I’m tired or upset, I can read a draft and think, “This is the worst thing I’ve ever written.” A few hours later, when I’m feeling better, I might look at that same draft and think, “Wow, this isn’t bad at all!” The takeaway here is that our feelings affect our thoughts. That’s why I encourage my students (and myself) not to set too much store by the thoughts that bubble up during moments of stress. Writing down the thought or sharing it with someone else can also help us get a more objective read on the situation. Distortion #4: Minimizing “Do you ever feel proud of your writing?” I asked Ava. She frowned slightly, puzzled. Writing was not her favorite activity, and her junior year of high school had been especially rough. Ava had no trouble describing the challenges she faced. Interestingly, though, whenever she overcame a challenge, it seemed to vanish from memory, replaced by yet another obstacle. Having noticed this pattern, we started making a point of listing Ava’s successes each week. I wanted to make sure she gave herself credit for the many things she did well. I also suspected that if we focused slightly more on these strengths, her overall experience of writing would be more positive, and she would tackle new challenges with greater confidence and enthusiasm. Ava quickly learned to name her successes with minimal prompting. We decided that because naming a success was itself a success, every success was a double-success. It’s successes all the way down! A final thought Traditionally, CBT has patients systematically identify, analyze, and rewrite problematic beliefs. This can be tremendously beneficial, but it can also feel exhausting in its own right. Some thoughts are stubborn and don’t readily give in to logic, and trying to shift thoughts can turn into a game of tug-of-war or whack-a-mole. As soon as you knock down one belief, another rears its head. A therapeutic modality called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, pronounced “ACT”) presents an alternative to the CBT approach. Instead of changing thoughts, ACT focuses on accepting and de-fusing  them–i.e., holding onto them less tightly and letting them fade into the background. If challenging distorted thoughts isn’t appealing or feasible, ACT might be a good option. Here are some resources to learn more: Brief Summary of the 6 Core Processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Definition, Techniques, and Efficacy McLean Videos | Apply ACT Principles to Your Daily Life What is Acceptance Commitment Therapy? About Lucy: I graduated from Stanford in 2024 with a degree in psychology and Slavic Studies. I currently live in Boston and work as a writing tutor with a focus on supporting 2e/neurodivergent students. I've been involved in the neurodiversity world since I was diagnosed with autism at age 18. I hope to pursue a PhD in psychology and develop evidence-based interventions to help neurodivergent students write. For tutoring inquiries, please check out my website !

Meet Lily Thirteen-year-old Lily is in eighth grade. She loves to sing and can talk your ears off about her favorite K-pop group. Though Lily is a bright and capable student, she’s struggling with the increasing demands of her eighth-grade curriculum–especially writing. Lily has trouble getting started on assignments. Tasked with writing a book report, she procrastinates for days, her dread and anxiety building continuously. When she finally gets started, she spends several hours trying to choose the “right” topic. She has little energy and time left for the writing itself.  Lily finishes the project at the last minute, and she knows it’s not her best work. This ordeal leaves her exhausted, behind on other homework, and more discouraged than ever. Executive functioning in the writing process In my work as a writing tutor, I’ve taught many students like Lily. Lily’s writing struggles aren’t just about writing, per se. Rather, they stem from issues with executive functioning (EF), the planning, organization, and self-regulation skills that help us execute tasks. EF-related writing challenges may be part of an established diagnosis such as autism or ADHD, or they may not. Either way, these struggles can wreak havoc on writing homework. Fortunately, there are solutions. By adding scaffolding and structure to writing assignments, we can help students develop EF skills and tackle complex tasks more effectively. In this post, I’ll share six of my favorite strategies to support EF throughout the writing process. Strategy 1: Set the environment up for success Lily assumed that her struggles with the book report reflected her being “bad at writing”. Really, though, there were other situational factors at play: She was tired. She was hungry. She’d had an argument with her friend after school, so she was feeling particularly anxious and self-critical. Her younger siblings were playing loudly in the other room, as younger siblings so often do. Notifications kept popping up on her phone. Addressing each of these factors individually, we can create an environment more conducive to writing: Get enough food, water, and sleep. Identify most and least focused times of day, and plan to write during the focused times whenever possible. Remove potential distractors, both physical and electronic. Be realistic about your attention span. Plan to focus for a maximum of 20-25 minutes at a time, and take frequent breaks. Use relaxation techniques to lower anxiety before writing. Strategy 2: Make a checklist.   Writing isn’t a single activity, but rather, a whole collection of tasks: brainstorming, drafting, organizing, rereading, and so on. If we don’t write down each step, they’ll clutter up our working memory, and we’ll likely forget important details. The answer? Checklists! Checklists are the best thing, and whoever is responsible for Google Docs’ checklist feature deserves a massive pay raise. If I haven’t yet sold you on the life-changing potential of checklists, consider the following: Checklists facilitate task initiation  by helping students determine exactly where to start. They scaffold time management,  allowing students to think through how long each step will take. We can revisit the checklist as we work to see what we’ve done and where to go next–i.e., practicing self-monitoring. Checklists help students prioritize, too. With all the tasks laid out in front of us, we can identify the most and least important ones. There’s something undeniably satisfying about the act of checking stuff off. It makes you feel powerful and accomplished. At least, it does for me. My standard checklist looks like this: Retrieve and clarify assignment instructions. Brainstorm ideas. Outline/map/organize ideas. Check to make sure the outline meets the assignment requirements. Add details to flesh out the outline. Going section by section, expand the outline into full sentences. Reread and edit. Proofread. Submit! Strategy 3: Organize everything Scientifically speaking, the verdict is in on multitasking : it doesn’t work. You might think you’re doing two things at once, but really, you’re jumping back and forth between the two, and you’re doing each one a little less efficiently. Psychologists call this cognitive switch cost. I don’t have data to back this, but I think it’s safe to say that this cost is even higher when ADHD and EF issues are in the mix. I see the cognitive switch cost in real time when writing materials are scattered across tabs and documents. Each time we jump to another window, we have to reorient ourselves and remember what we’re doing. Here’s how to minimize the switch cost and stay organized: Put everything in one document. Play with font size to make headings and key ideas stand out. Bold, italicize, or underline important words. Set aside materials you’re not actively using. Color-code everything. Note: Many ADHD students (and some neurotypicals!) find it easier to concentrate when they have stimulation: music playing, TV, a fidget toy, etcetera. I wouldn’t consider this a source of switch cost as long as it remains in the background. If, however, that source of input becomes a task of its own, it could pull attention away from the main activity and incur a switch cost. Importantly, switching itself isn’t necessarily a problem. Some people find it energizing and engaging to bounce from thing to thing, and if that strategy works, great! We just want to watch for unintentional switching that drains our energy without providing any benefit. Strategy 4: Highlight the current task. Working memory describes the information that we actively maintain and use. Have you ever read a phone number aloud and repeated it to yourself as you dial? That’s working memory. Or have you walked down a grocery aisle trying to remember that you need eggs, milk, and cream cheese? That’s working memory, too. I know a student has working memory limitations when they frequently ask, “Wait, what did you say?” It’s also worth mentioning that plenty of non-autistic/ADHD people struggle with this, too. Our working memory can be affected by stress, overwhelm, fatigue, and so on. The more information we cram into working memory, the more likely we are to forget it. Correspondingly, if we remove that information from our working memory and store it elsewhere, we free up space for thinking and writing. Here are a few ways to do this: Write the current task down on a physical or digital surface, ideally in large, colorful letters.  Use a sticky note or arrow to point out the thing you need to focus on. Cover up irrelevant materials physically (with paper) or digitally (turning the font white). Strategy 5: Set a timer. I’m writing these words on a Thursday. I promised to have this post finished by Friday. This was a deliberate move on my part. If I’d planned to finish this post “at some point,” it may never have happened. My self-imposed deadline forces me to buckle down and actually do the thing. This strategy works on a smaller timescale, too, which is why I like to set timers for each step of the writing process. As an added bonus, timers help combat ADHD-related time blindness, and–unsurprisingly–they support time management skills. Strategy 6: Stop and reflect. I always ask my students three questions throughout tutoring sessions: What’s the goal? What have we already done? What should we do next? In the short term, these prompts help students organize their work, and in the long term, they encourage metacognitive awareness. Students begin to develop a sense of which challenges come up as they write and which strategies will help. They also start to generalize their skills, taking an approach that worked in one context and applying it to another. Lily revisits her book report with the above strategies in mind. Set up the environment.  Lily finds it easiest to focus in the morning. She sits down at the kitchen table and removes distractions by leaving her phone in the other room. She’ll also take a break every 15 minutes. Her siblings have agreed to cause trouble in a quieter, less immediately disruptive fashion. Make a checklist.  Lily lists out the steps of the assignment. Review instructions Choose a book Brainstorm ideas about the book Choose main points to focus on Make an outline Write! Get organized. Next, Lily gathers her materials. She realizes that she wrote down some ideas during a class discussion, which is great–she’s already done some of the work! She puts everything in one folder and uses her very fancy pastel highlighters to mark up her book. Highlight the current task. Lily goes through each step on the list, writing her current task on a big post-it to support working memory.  Set a time.  Lily’s timer helps her work at an efficient pace, and it makes a nice chime sound when it goes off, rather than the usual annoying beep.  Stop and reflect. Her mom prompts her with self-reflection questions throughout, and when Lily is finished, they take a few minutes to talk about how the assignment went. Although Lily struggled at certain points, she also had lots of successes. Recognizing those successes boosts her confidence, and the next time she comes home with a writing assignment, she feels ready to tackle it on her own. About Lucy: I graduated from Stanford in 2024 with a degree in psychology and Slavic Studies. I currently live in Boston and work as a writing tutor with a focus on supporting 2e/neurodivergent students. I've been involved in the neurodiversity world since I was diagnosed with autism at age 18. I hope to pursue a PhD in psychology and develop evidence-based interventions to help neurodivergent students write. For tutoring inquiries, please check out my website !

On Jan 13, 2022, REEL members met in our PHP online support group and used Padlet to share strategies for communicating with teachers and schools about their 2e students, their biggest concern for the year, tools they need to advocate for change around their area of concern, and setting a goal to make change at their school for the year. We have summarized the takeaways with the goal of helping parents make change at their school for their 2e child. REEL is here to help with resources (we add more based on your feedback ) and our parent support group where you can get advice from other parents of 2e students. Every time a parent reaches out to their teacher, school, or district about 2e, they can effect change not only for their own student, but for all 2e students - as the schools hear about this from more and more parents, they are more likely to make a change. What have you tried in the past and how did it work out? Many parents found that communication with teachers at the start of the year was a successful strategy. They shared what worked in the past, what works at home, and what the student needs to succeed. Some shared REEL’s Intro to 2e One Pager . “I’m seeing that at my child’s particular school, I need to talk to the teachers at the beginning of the year about what he needs to succeed.” One parent wished for “some good ways to let them know that we deeply appreciate what they do while also requesting support and accommodations for our kiddos.” Head to the "Back to school" section of REEL's 2e Tools page to find relevant event recordings, a downloadable student one-sheet , other articles, and more. Another popular strategy was getting an IEP/504 for the student. It provided documentation and steps for support. One parent suggested meeting every 30 days to adjust the IEP plan. Some parents were frustrated they couldn’t get an IEP/504 for their 2e child because they didn’t present in the delineated way. Others lamented that even with an IEP/504 the support was subpar. “ Simply getting a 504 plan set up has been a step in the right direction . There are documented accommodations we can discuss and check in on. They have helped my son in some ways but it's no silver bullet.” Watch REEL’s 2e IEP/504 Support with Lamborn Advocacy for information about how to get an IEP/504 for your 2e student. Many parents brought in a team for support - the most commonly used outside resource are advocates. “ Having an advocate changed everything for us . It empowered us not to be dismissed so easily and gain a better understanding of the process. I had someone on our side who focused on the big picture. A lifesaver for sure.” Sometimes we forget to ask the student what would help them, but they often know best: “My son told the teacher, ‘ Instead of telling me what I'm doing wrong, ask me how you can help me ’ - that pivotal comment changed everything.” What is the most pressing or important 2e-related challenge you'd like to see change or improve? Parents want to see more education about learning differences and 2e, and more kindness and creativity in supporting 2e. They wanted teachers to avoid getting into power struggles and remove 2e stigma from the classroom. “ Professional development for teachers so they are better equipped to teach and support our children.” You can share REEL’s educator resources with your school or classroom. The group wanted their kids to use their strengths at school and be allowed more flexibility in how they present their knowledge. They wanted their children to enjoy going to school. “ I’d like my son to be happy with school . He’s only 6 and has hated it the entire time. I wish people understood that 6 is too young to be miserable and to try things differently with him.” Watch REEL’s Strength-based Strategies presentation and Strength-based Strategies to Kick Off the New Year blog post to learn how to bring out your child’s strengths. Parents also wanted their kids to accept their differences and use the accommodations offered. “Is anyone having issues with their 2e child refusing to use accommodations , unwilling to accept the diagnosis?” / “Yes to not using accommodations…they do not want anything else that makes them seem different”. Read Mike’s story and learn about his relationship with accommodations and his diagnosis. Several parents were concerned about a lack of social support at school, “I would like my child to make more social connections at school .” REEL will look into the creation of an event or document about this topic. 2e students often don’t fit a clean mold for “gifted” or “requiring IEP services” and parents often find themselves stuck in the middle - not receiving support because the child is clearly bright, or not having access to accelerated learning due to their challenges. “ Since nothing is "Wrong" we can't get support for him through the typical avenues. ” Watch REEL’s 2e IEP/504 Support with Lamborn Advocacy for information about how to get an IEP/504 for your 2e student. What is one goal you have for working with your child's school this year? “My goal is for my son to feel psychologically safe around all of his teachers - that when he is refusing to do work or escalating, they get to the bottom of it and diffuse it rather than escalating it further.” “My goal is for the school to create two new social opportunities that my child would actually like to participate in.” “My son says, ’All school is boring; that's just the way it is, mom!’ I'd like to see the school make it a priority to get kids to see that school can be exciting and stimulating!” “Be proactive and engage my son in a nightly routine - discussions where I prompt him to ask follow up questions and to work on listening skills / conversational skills” (Try REEL’s rating scale ). “I met with my child's team in early December about supporting her social skills development…I haven't seen any action on these… So, my goal is to re-send that follow up email and re-ignite the plan we had.” “Primarily, I want him to feel comfortable with reading and writing…I want him to feel comfortable reading books quietly to himself, and writing a page or two, without worrying about spelling.” “Our goal is to find a male ‘Life Coach’ with 2e child knowledge/understanding, to work with our 2e child psychologist and 2e young adult (18 yrs) transition to College.” (See REEL’s Marci Schwartz presentation .) “A small step for me would be finding ways to connect with other 2e parents at our school, so that we could find common goals and advocate together.” “I’d like my son to be safe at school. I wish the teacher explained how people can be different.” What is your goal for the year? Share it with us at hello@reel2e.org

Dear REEL community,Happy New Year! I hope your 2025 is off to a great start. Over the past few weeks, REEL has been working on our own resolutions - we have been engaged in exciting strategy sessions with Manresa Collaboration. Together, we are developing REEL’s roadmap towards our vision for the future, where all Bay Area neurodivergent and twice-exceptional students are supported, understood, and achieving their potential in school. Credit to Manresa Collaboration for photo. We also received a new year’s gift: our short video explaining the  DEAR REEL model , which REEL developed in 2024 in partnership with our Educator Advisory Group, was finished by video producer extraordinaire and neurodiversity guru,  Erin Tee . I am excited to share it with you here: I’m looking forward to connecting with all of you at REEL’s upcoming first ever K-12 Strengths Fair ! March 9th promises to be a great day - don’t miss it! Later that month, we’ll host a panel of incredible neurodivergent young adults  during Neurodiversity Celebration Week. In February, keep an eye out for us at upcoming conferences: Gift-A-Palooza February 6 - 8Sat, Feb 8, 10am PST: Sparking Autistic Interests: From Research to PracticeSat, Feb 8, 11:30am PST: Strength-Based Strategies for the Neurodivergent Child William & Mary 2e Conference February 27 - March 1Thursday, Feb 27, 12:45pm PST: The DEAR REEL Model Behind the scenes, we’re busy working with Bay Area educators - since my last update, we’ve had sessions at the Menlo Park School District, the English Curriculum leaders in North American French Schools, Athena Academy, Serra High School, and others; and we have events coming up over the next few months at the San Carlos School District, Stevenson Elementary in Mountain View, and at the Nueva School. After each and every one of our professional development workshops, we consistently walk away feeling impressed, inspired, and honored to work with such committed, curious, and passionate teachers. As always, if you don't see your school on the list but are interested in having REEL work with your school, please connect us to your school leadership! Reach out to hello@reel2e.org  anytime. See you March 9th! Abby Kirigin REEL Executive Director

Neurodiversity Week was started by high school student Siena Castellon to make a more inclusive school environment for Neurodiverse students. Over 1000 schools are participating this year! REEL would like to celebrate Neurodiversity Week with you by asking that you do just one thing - forward one 2e resource to an educator in your child's life! Ideas of things to send to your educators: REEL articles: Intro to 2e One Pager , Is Your Child Twice-Exceptional Checklist , Living and Learning 2e Teen Voices, How Public Schools Can Support 2e Learners REEL videos: Ever Had a Kid Like Me? , What is 2e and the DEAR REEL Model Recommend a free registration to 2e News Videos: Dan Peters Giftedness, Talent, and Disability , Seth Perler What is 2e Kid , Aurora Public Schools 2e Learners Books to buy or recommend for your classroom or library , Emily Kircher Morris Teaching Twice Exceptional Learners  and Neurodiversity Affirming Schools Connect REEL with your school for educator professional development If everyone does just one thing, together we will make a big impact. Let us know what one thing you did this week in the comments below or on our social media! "By acknowledging and celebrating the strengths of neurodiverse students, we can begin the seismic shift of changing the way students with special needs are perceived and treated at school and also the change the way neurodivergent students feel about themselves."

My 2e kid is a full body laugh-er. But, up until a few months ago, I had forgotten. My daughter hasn’t always struggled. There was a time when joy and curiosity radiated out of her every pore. But, by the time she was 10, traditional schools and societal expectations had molded her into a person we know longer recognized. At this point, interactions with her were met with a creative mix of exhaustion, avoidance, and frustration. After realizing our local public school was part of the problem, (like many parents of 2e kids) we went down the rabbit hole of educational options: public charter school, private gifted school, private LD school, supportive boarding school. But, none of these schools understood the complexity that came with being REALLY asynchronous.  By her senior year, my daughter had transitioned to a more flexible homeschool/online charter high school to help her get across the finish line. Still, everyday was a slog. Her joy was gone. Her nervous system was in shutdown mode.   As the end of high school loomed, my daughter became more withdrawn and avoidant. Seemingly innocent requests about her future plans were met with terror in her eyes, a change of subject, and sometimes, a change of room–door slam included.  It had come time for me to internalize that my daughter was not ready for the demands of college. So instead of diving into the college applications process during her senior year of high school, my daughter opted to take an unstructured gap year after graduation. And six months into it, I can confidently say that this decision has positively changed the trajectory of her life. There are many gap year programs available for the kids who are not ready for college or don’t know what they want to do next. Some programs focus on skill building, some focus on independent living, some are internship/co-op programs. However, all of the gap year programs we looked at had the same thing in common: they were structured. Most all the programs had posted daily schedules and requirements. They looked a lot like school. The last thing my daughter needed was more school.  What my daughter needed was the opportunity to define who she is and who she aspires to be. After years of being told she wasn’t ever “quite right,” she didn’t know who she was anymore. She only knew what she wasn’t. She wasn’t a great student. She wasn’t like other kids. It didn’t matter if we thought she was great. Bullying from teachers and students had left my daughter a shell of her former joyful self. My daughter had spent so many years being defined by the wrong system, she had internalized that she was the one that was broken. Does my daughter need to work on strengthening her independent living skills? Yes. Does she lack some critical time management strategies to succeed in college? Yes. Does she need to address the perfectionism that keeps her from performing to her potential? Yes, to all of it. However, instead of trying to meet a structured gap year program’s benchmarks, she is learning these skills through real life experiences that she chooses. My daughter understands that these are the skills she will need to master in order to be successfully independent (e.g. remembering to take her medication, keeping a calendar, shopping for healthy food.)  This fall my daughter applied to a number of colleges*. In fact, the college application process became an unexpected structure for this unstructured gap year. From the preparation, to the application, to making a final decision, planning for college has given her a reason to stay focused. With each school acceptance letter, her confidence has grown. The application process has become a real world lesson in organization, communication, time management and self-acceptance. For the first time since she was little, my daughter is excited for her future.  Part of this excitement is rooted in her ability to have control over her days. As a newly minted adult, my daughter’s days are hers to schedule. Has there been a lot of video games and anime? Of course. But there has also been a lot of time to engage in other activities. She meets with a private tutor to prepare for college-level Calculus, volunteers at the Humane Society, practices Japanese, and draws daily. She has found a group of friends online with similar interests and has established a Twitch streaming channel. She still has down days and hiccups, but for the most part, the good has far outweighed the bad. Going away to college is still super scary for my daughter, but I think she is up for the challenge. More importantly, I think that there is now a part of her that thinks she is, too. The unstructured gap year didn’t eliminate my daughter’s challenges, but it allowed her to take ownership of the steps she will need to take in order to reach her goals. There is once again light in her eyes and emotion in her choices .  Our 2e kids know what they need, but some of them struggle to define it. As parents, I think it is paramount that we allow our children the opportunity to seek out what makes them happy, even if it takes time. I am a firm believer that time is really just a construct and the gift of failure is an opportunity to step back and reevaluate our values . It may not be for everyone, but the unstructured gap year is what my daughter needed. I am happy to report that 6 months in, not a day goes by that we don't hear our girl full body laugh.  *Note: Shout out to fellow REELer and independent college counselor, Helen Amick, for all of her support in making my daughter’s college application journey so successful. Gabrielle Boles is currently a Master’s student at the Bridges Graduate School. She is a 20 year veteran of the California higher education system primarily working with marginalized and underrepresented students. Her current research interests include the perception of gifted/2e outliers and identifying internalized bias in the classroom. Gabrielle lives in a comically twice-exceptional house with two teenage daughters, a husband and a (most likely) 2e dog.

Twice exceptional students have few forums to express their lived educational experiences. REEL is pleased to launch “Living and Learning 2e,” a new blog series dedicated to giving twice exceptional children, teens, and young adults a place to share their voices. Ava M. is our second guest blogger. She attended Palo Alto Unified School District schools through her 10th grade year, when she discovered how her mental health diagnosis affects her learning style and executive functions. Ava enjoys learning about plants and the environment, and wants to continue to study environmental studies in college. In her spare time, she loves writing stories, embroidering, and hiking. She finished her last two years of high school in the Foothill Middle College program and is off to Sarah Lawrence College. Ava contributed this blog based on her desire to help other students who face similar challenges. When Learning Loses Its Joy I recently found my fourth grade report card while sifting through old documents and worksheets, reminiscing on my life before school became something I no longer looked forward to. “She is eager to learn… she is motivated to learn… she surpassed her reading goal by over 600%.” I can’t help but wonder where my performance in school started straying from my strong track record of elementary school report cards. Being a twice-exceptional learner used to be a quality that got me into accelerated reading and advanced math classes, because in elementary school, learning is about learning. Sadly, this is something I’ve found changes over time. Middle school is about figuring out how to be a high functioning student, and high school is about getting good grades, high test scores, and being accepted into a top ranked university. This means mindless note taking, writing essays that match what the teacher wants to read, turning in purposeless worksheets, and doing all of this as fast as possible. I started noticing that the feedback my teachers gave me shifted from commending my exceptional motivation to learn to suggesting I turn in assignments more quickly and focus on ways to raise my grades. In tenth grade I was placed in a class focused on helping underperforming students organize their schoolwork and learn more efficient study skills. Basically, nearly everyone in the class either had a 504 plan, IEP, or a challenging home life that made it hard for them to succeed. This class was called “focus on success.” 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 towards 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? Assignment Overload A massive challenge I’ve had is turning in assignments on time. 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. I was too embarrassed to admit this to anyone for two whole years, and as you can imagine, my grades suffered. Not only did my grades suffer, but so did my self esteem. My entire two years at Gunn High School, I felt stupid. I didn’t think I was smart; I didn’t know how to learn; and I assumed that I didn’t have any future in academia. Life Changing Teachers I spent the last two years of high school at Foothill Middle College, the most life-changing academic experience of my life. Two of the greatest and most supportive teachers I’ve ever had were there: my history and English teachers. They understood the hardships my learning disability brings me, but didn’t choose to look at them as hardships. Instead of ridiculing the time it took me to turn in writing assignments, they celebrated the achievements and focused on the content of the assignments. Instead of being upset with me for needing to take a few minutes alone outside during class, they asked if there was any other way to help. They treated me as their equal in a way no adult had before, and it finally made me feel comfortable enough to believe in my abilities as a student. As a learning community and wider society, we choose to look at learning disabilities as disabilities . It even says so in the name! The truth is, they’re not. They can include 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. One of the biggest reasons I was able to go from nearly giving up on all aspects of my life (school included) to having straight A’s and being the happiest I’ve ever been is because of the non-judgmental and unconditional support my Foothills Middle College teachers gave me. They never made me feel guilty or as if my grade was in danger if I couldn’t turn something in by the deadline. My teachers didn’t make me feel like the letters on my transcript defined my self worth in the way that my home high school did. Instead, they reached their caring hands outward and offered an amount of help I had never experienced before. By being treated respectfully, getting rid of the competitive spirit amongst students brought about by my high school’s culture of focusing on the importance of grades, flexibility in the classroom, and 24/7 support (along with much more), my teachers showed me that I could love school once again. School should be about learning and growing as an individual, and that should be available to all types of learners. My favorite teachers are the only adults I’ve met that have understood that, and actually practiced what they preached. Talk to Your Teachers My greatest piece of advice to other 2e learners is sitting down and having a conversation with your teachers. Asking for help and admitting that you can’t do something on your own takes strength, and should be commended. Making a plan with revised due dates, prioritization of different assignments, designated study times, and activities to de-stress in between all of this is extremely helpful. You may find that your teacher is much more understanding than you thought. Constantly remind yourself that school is about learning. Your grades don’t always reflect how well you know a subject, and they never reflect your self worth. A person is worth so much more than a letter on a piece of paper. If you focus on your strengths and the subjects you enjoy, your grades are more likely to show how well you’ve mastered the material. Teachers, Flexibility is the Answer A piece of advice I have for educators is to be flexible with students. People learn at different paces, and require different activities and teaching methods. For example, I have friends that will suck up information from documentaries and remember it forever, while documentaries are a one-way ticket to daydream land for me. Another example of flexibility I have is from my experience at Middle College. The students in my class were given creative freedom on every project assigned, thanks to the trust we had built with our teachers. If we didn’t like the prompt for an assignment, that was ok, as long as we turned something in that demonstrated our knowledge of the topic. Something as seemingly unimportant as this made a massive difference. I found that 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. Hope is Possible I’m thankful for the support I’ve found and for my ability to persevere. My struggles have made me stronger, and I’ve learned how to be successful over several long years of trial and error. Thanks to all of this, I’m looking forward to life, and will be attending Sarah Lawrence College in the fall. If someone had told my 9th grade self that, I would’ve laughed and called them a liar. Change is possible, but it isn’t easy and can’t be done overnight. There is no one magic cure-all tip I can give, but I can share my experience in hopes of it resonating with someone struggling in the way I did.

Twice-exceptional students have few forums to express their lived educational experiences. REEL is pleased to launch “Living and Learning 2e,” a new blog series dedicated to giving twice exceptional children, teens, and young adults a place to share their voices. Mike M. is our third guest blogger. He attended Palo Alto Unified School District for elementary and middle schools. In addition to his eloquence and imagination, Mike loves games such as Guitar Hero and Final Fantasy VI. He’s an avid Magic the Gathering player. He also loves making music through singing, drums, keyboard, bass guitar, and music production with Ableton and Sound Cloud. Diagnosed with ADHD and dysgraphia in elementary school, Mike welcomed the opportunity to reflect on his experience as a twice-exceptional learner before launching into high school - especially in this Covid-19 era. What has it felt like to be both exceptionally bright and experience ADHD and dysgraphia? So many terms and buzzwords get thrown around me. I suppose that I’ve never felt like I have a disability because I don’t know what it’s like to have “ability” - who I am just feels normal to me because I don’t know what it’s like to not have these problems. I’ve known that I learn differently from other people for a long time and I’ve accepted that. I’m not going to beat up myself for it. I’ve been downplaying the brightness aspect of my personality for a few years now because it’s oppressively anti-social to be a “know it all” and, if I don’t understand something, it’s a complete blow to my identity. I prefer to not talk about how smart I am or how much I can do. I’ve erased all of that from my identity - it just came off as being a huge jerk. I really don’t want to communicate “I’m so cool, I can do so much” as part of who I am. If I’m meeting someone, I don’t want to talk about what I can do because it feels like I’m trying to paint myself as God of everything instead of a human being. When talking now, I’m more of a passive observer; before, a lot of who I was and what I talked about alienated people and made them not want to be around me. I’m very comfortable talking about ADHD and dysgraphia, but I don’t want to make them part of my personality because they don’t add anything to who I am. They’re just things about me. I’m willing to mention it, but I don’t feel obligated to say it. It’s not a personality trait. Just putting it up at the forefront makes it sound like I’m grasping at straws for who I am as a person. When I first learned about my ADHD and dysgraphia, I wore them like a badge of honor. I thought I was cool and had these things that made it harder for me, that I was working harder than everyone else; I know now that wasn’t true. What is your interior experience like that others might not know about? I feel like I’m not being true to myself because I’ve been eliminating elements of my idea of myself because I don’t want me being smart or me having disabilities to be part of who I am in any way possible. I’d rather just ignore them. I know that’s not being true to myself but at the same time I don’t feel like being true to myself is the right option. When I’m alone, I can be myself. I don’t feel like I’m putting on a mask because I have become the mask in this weird sense. My desire to not let these things control me has forced them to not control me. I experience a general sense of frustration with most things. It’s hard to line up specifics that make things challenging for me. It’s not like one thing, it’s a series of multiple isolated examples that just add up into something. Something that’s incredibly clear to other people on the instruction sheet doesn’t make sense to me and it takes me reading it 10 times to figure out what it means. It was great going from having to hand write everything to using a computer, but in a weird way it just made me feel less understood. It made me feel like people weren’t trying to help me as a person, but rather some idealized version of me. When I switched to using the computer, people would think all of these problems would be fixed. But I still have trouble reading instructions and not understanding exactly what teachers want. Just because I have the ability to type, all of the other problems weren’t magically fixed. Things just aren’t designed for me. But, the world shouldn’t have to adapt to my weird inner ideas of what’s right. So I kind of gave up on forcing things to work for me. It’s a lot better and easier if I adapt to the world. I am missing some things, but the doors that open for me are very valuable and I’m willing to miss those things. Who was the teacher who really understood you and helped you learn the best? Honestly, my 3rd grade teacher. It wasn’t anything specific that she did. It’s just that, for everyone, her teaching style was incredibly kind and understanding. She really took the time to figure out what made each student tick. In middle school, my 7th grade science teacher really took the time to be sure that everyone was understood and got the help they needed to learn. For my learning style, it’s helpful when things are clear and put out in front of me; then, I can understand easily. So, the best teachers are the ones who communicate clearly and make sure I understand what I need to be doing. The key is that both of these teachers did what I needed for everyone in the class and that was what was so nice about them. They weren’t just trying to be sure I would be satisfied but that everyone would be satisfied. When it’s just me, I feel like I’m being singled out and even if the intent is to be helpful, it doesn’t always feel like that. In a weird way, it feels forced, like they were told to help rather than something they wanted to do. With my 3rd and 7th grade teachers, learning just felt natural. What advice do you have for parents and teachers working with learners like you? Honestly, for everyone, I feel just be patient and understand. Not a lot of special accommodations are needed as much as being patient and letting me take things at my own pace. If that happened, no other accommodations would be needed. For teachers, please just make sure I’m understanding things by checking in with me every so often, after a lecture, but don’t make it oppressive. Step by step instructions are really helpful, too. What are you looking forward to in the future? I’m taking things one day at a time. I’m not looking forward to anything now, it’s such weird times, it’s just going to disappoint me. I look forward to eating lunch—little things like that. If there’s a chance something might disappoint me, I don’t look forward to it. I just take things one step at a time. Thinking about a younger student, like myself at seven years old, I would just hope that things would be easier for him and for others. For that seven year old, I hope they get the help they need. Be patient. If they don’t understand, then help them.

Twice-exceptional students have few forums to express their lived educational experiences. REEL is pleased to launch “Living and Learning 2e,” a new blog series dedicated to giving twice exceptional children, teens, and young adults a place to share their voices. Noah B. is our fourth guest blogger. Noah is a twice-exceptional 11th grader at one of the Summit Public Schools in the SF Bay Area. He attended his local public schools in Half Moon Bay before switching to Helios School for 7th and 8th grades, which “turned out to be the best decision I have made.” His passion in life is photography; ever since he tried out his dad’s camera, he was hooked. He also is involved in the “car scene,” which he says is a “surprisingly large and accepting community.” When he is not getting to know new car enthusiasts and photographers, he spends his time doing what he does best: extreme sports. The Best Teacher You Ever Had Who was the teacher who really understood you and helped you learn the best? The best—and strictest—teacher I ever had was my 6th grade history teacher, Mr. Rippberger. He was really good about making sure nobody felt worried about going to his class. He also heard about me having ADHD and actually let me know after one of my classes that he also had ADD and was open to finding a way to help me, not only get my work done, but also improve to the point of not needing reminders. It was probably the first time that I actually noticed my ability to focus and my challenge with blurting out improving. He was never afraid of letting me know when I was talking too much. Whenever someone today asks me how they can help me when I am speaking out of turn, I tell them to just do what he did, which is to be straight forward and tell me what I’m doing, since I’m not always aware of it. Funnily, I learned how to format notes in his class, and I still prefer that method over all the other ones I’ve tried. From the Inside—What 2e Feels Like What are things you've experienced in your interior world that the external world might not know about and how has it changed over time? For me, being a 2e learner felt surprisingly normal, with the exception that the actual rate I was learning was slower than for others, and people kept telling me something was wrong. The problem with my “disability” was that I was not aware of what I was doing wrong. Whether talking too much, talking out of turn, not paying attention to someone, or not being able to hold still, I was never aware of it, meaning I had no way of stopping. This has always conflicted with other people because to them, it appeared almost intentional since when told to stop, I would shortly continue the behavior I was doing before. It would distress me a lot because people would randomly lose their cool or get annoyed at me, for what appeared to me was nothing. At heart I am in no way whatsoever a trouble maker; in fact, I hate causing others trouble with a passion. At some point I realized others would not figure this out on their own, so I slowly began adapting to the situation and making myself easier to understand. Unlike most people I know, I don't keep secrets if the knowledge could help someone in any way. Even though being an open book may seem like a bad thing, it has, actually, almost completely solved my social problems concerning people disliking me. Back in middle school, I would seem to attract negative attention, be it bullying or something similar. (It got so bad that I had multiple valuable possessions stolen from right in front of me, so I decided to switch schools for 7th grade.) I am not sure exactly why the change helped, but my assumption is that I used to be that kid who seemed to be in his own world, and that nobody who would be angry or insulted if another person bullied me. Since I began being more open about myself, I’m more outgoing; I used to walk around with my head down, never talking to people. Now, I believe people don't have a reason to see me as a target. I don't lie, I don't belong to some “social group” other people might have beef with, and I don't participate in any activities someone might consider dumb or an attack. Since I always give a logical answer when asked a logical question, and help out when someone has a logical problem, I act as a sort of mediator, or neutral party. (Wow that was long, I dislike writing but when it comes to my way of living and mentality on things, I have a lot of thoughts. And they seem to work.) Advice for Parents and Teachers What are the top things parents or teachers can do to support 2e learners? It’s not simple. From my two years of middle school experience at a school dedicated to gifted and 2e learners (shout-out to Helios!!), I have noticed that every one of us needs support in a different way. If we are talking about 2e as a whole, the best solution is to ask what will help best, as what works for one person could do the opposite for another. For instance, for me personally, don’t be afraid to tell me if I need to change what I am doing—that is the best way to help. Many teachers instinctually either feel like they are doing something wrong or insulting me by telling me if I am doing something they don’t think is “right”. Or, they tell me to stop doing something once, and then assume I am defying them when I eventually do it again. Every time someone asks me how they can help, I say the same thing, “Legit, just tell me what I am doing wrong and I will try to fix it.” If I am not aware of my mistake I am not physically capable of fixing it. So please just say exactly what you are thinking, don't sugarcoat it; I probably won't understand what someone means if they say “The birds are chirping too much” or something else with a “hidden” message. All of this goes for both parents and teachers, although I highly recommend not using this advice for anyone other than me, as everyone else I know would not take being told so directly to “shut up” as lightly. What’s Next? What are you looking forward to in the future or what do you hope will happen next for other 2e students? In the future I am looking forward to a lot of things. One thing that I do enjoy and look forward to is seeing the face people make when I tell them I’m actually one of those “autistic kids” they were just joking about. Not only is the fact that they don't believe me rather satisfying, but I am always glad to change someone’s perspective on what It means to be 2e. 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. I hope that, as other 2e students learn and grow, they will realize that what used to seem like problems to them, are more like challenges to which the reward is a better, free self. I also believe that 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. Those people need help, not to correct their problems, but to help overcome them. Since I was a little kid, I have realized that simply telling kids like me that Einstein was 2e is not going to solve anything if we don't know what or who is 2e right now. What Else Would You Like People to Know? I’m Noah Boyer and there is no reason I would ever hide that. In fact, I believe that the way we are hidden from others as if we weren't part of the normal world is counterproductive. Over the years I have become more and more connected to photography, to the point where I will not go anywhere without my camera. I love photography not only because it is a way for me to get out and challenge my creativity, but also because it is like a door into many parts of the world that others aren't even aware of. For me, a door I chose led me to the car enthusiasts scene, which is a surprisingly large and accepting community. Despite what people might imagine about a community of people who practically live in their garages making their cars as loud and powerful as possible, these people are actually really nice. Even being one of the youngest and newest people to the car scene, and not even owning my own car, no matter where I go these people recognize me as a friend and respect me as an equal. Even while driving around in potentially million dollar cars, taking photos for them feels like nothing more than hanging out with friends. Of course when I am not getting to know new car enthusiasts and photographers, I spend my time doing what I do best: sports. Preferably extreme sports. I often spend hours outside, pushing myself to my limit while doing parkour, biking, or inline skating. For me it is a way to escape from the boring rhythm of life, and find experiences and places I never dreamed I would discover.

Twice exceptional students have few forums to express their lived educational experiences. REEL is pleased to launch “Living and Learning 2e,” a new blog series dedicated to giving twice exceptional children, teens, and young adults a place to share their voices. Chris D. is our first guest blogger. Chris attended several elementary, middle, and high schools in Silicon Valley, both private and public. He wrote this blog as part of a course assignment for a sociology class. His goal is to show some of the challenges twice exceptional and other students may experience in today’s education system. The Best Teacher You Ever Had Who was the teacher who really understood you and helped you learn the best? I don’t think there is a teacher that fits that criteria exactly, but there are some that fit some of the criteria. I would say one of the teachers I had the best results with was Mr. Baker, my year eleven mathematics teacher. This was almost entirely down to one policy—he would accept late homework indefinitely, which allowed me to not fall too far behind and complete all the coursework in my own time. This allowed my grades to reflect my knowledge of the subject. Prior to this, I had continually frustrating experiences where the amount of effort put in, work completed, and content learned was completely disproportionate to my course grade. There have been other teachers I engaged with for different reasons and while there were things that made their classes more interesting and engaging, such as their passion for the subject and a willingness to occasionally explain more advanced details relevant to the subject, the format of the teaching made the class very difficult and frustrating. This includes lack of clarity on how to complete assignments and an unwillingness to explain, even after class, how to complete work when the assignment was unclear. The willingness to talk in greater depth about subjects is good, but it often cannot happen in class, which is stifling. From the Inside - What 2e Feels Like What are things you've experienced in your interior world that the external world might not know about and how has it changed over time? I would characterize it as frustrating and stressful. It has mostly ended up worse over time. As you get older and enter middle and high school, it’s very easy to fall behind and be caught in a position where it’s impossible to recover. Often there is an unclear assignment format early in the course or it takes some time to grasp the subject matter, but taking the extra time to figure that out, especially if the teacher or professor is not particularly helpful, means you stop being aligned with the course schedule. Another barrier is the bottlenecks that arise in middle and high school; for instance, you take multiple, dense courses that have more time-consuming tasks and assignments due at the same time, which usually leads me into a perpetual state of being behind, especially because often late assignments will be accepted but only with reduced credit. Even more days to turn in assignments doesn’t help with being perpetually behind, which inhibits learning the content and understanding recent assignments, since you’re focused on older work. Skipping over to the current stuff sets you back on the old stuff, permanently diminishing your grade, so the whole experience becomes difficult and not an accurate reflection of my knowledge in the course. Advice for Parents and Teachers What are the top things parents or teachers can do to support 2e learners? For teachers, I’ve found that the early assignments need to be clarified so the formatting for it and later assignments is very well understood. Providing examples of what is expected is very helpful. Also, allow for alternate ways to show content mastery, such as discussion based assessment of the content, so that if I have high marks on all exams, I am not required to go back and complete rote work while the course has moved on to new content. For example, 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. For parents, asking 2E students to prioritize tasks, then complaining about how those tasks are prioritized makes it much harder to concentrate on getting the tasks complete. It’s especially important for parents of 2E students to clearly communicate expectations and priorities to ensure there isn’t a discrepancy in what each party is trying to express. What’s Next? What are you looking forward to in the future or what do you hope will happen next for other 2e students? The recent emphasis on online education could help 2E students who are better served under that model. Online education shows that there is a growing acceptance of alternative teaching methods and can allow for more freedom to work at one’s own pace.