What Does Twice-Exceptional (2e) Mean?

Let’s take a look at ADD and Gifted as an example.

“Can you tell me if my child has a learning or behavioral disorder?”

I began my private practice as a gifted specialist in the early 2000s. Because the term gifted had so much confusion and exclusivity surrounding it, I came to rename my role as a High Intelligence Specialist. It turns out that many people have an easier time considering that they might — maybe — be highly intelligent more than they can accept themselves as gifted. For these reasons perhaps, even though I wanted to help children and adults alike, it was mostly parents who knocked on my door. This story is about one of the issues parents who brought their children to me presented: “Can you tell me if my child has a learning or behavioral disorder?”

A little over one year into my consultancy, I confronted the issue of ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder, and ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, myriad times. Twenty-five years later, I’m no longer shocked when people bring up their ADD diagnosis or that of their child’s. It is mostly the child’s teachers who tell the parents they should have their child tested for ADD. My children’s teachers told me to have my children evaluated, three boys who were just like my two brothers. I didn’t have my children evaluated because I focused on finding them the best…