There are quite a few things about being a twice-exceptional (or 2E) kid that no one else can really relate to. On one hand, you might be leagues beyond your peers in some areas. You may find certain activities or parts of the day boring or tedious. On the other hand, you may struggle to keep up in other areas. These are quite unique challenges. For any student who struggles to remain engaged because of their advanced skills, or for any learner who experiences academic struggle due to a learning difference, their challenges aren’t quite the same. Twice-exceptional learners have a foot in both camps. And it can be a pretty confusing place to be.
Challenges of Twice-Exceptional Students
Separating the challenge from the gift
A common obstacle among twice-exceptional populations is that it can be hard for the grown-ups in their lives to separate the student’s learning difference from their gift. Often, one will override the other, making it seem like the student is just gifted, perhaps with some quirks, or has special needs and happens to do well on certain tasks. It’s not all that common for professionals to recognize both at once as two distinct learning differences.
The challenge and the gift can cancel each other out
In some cases, instead of one covering up the other, they will simply “cancel each other out.” Especially in cases where the learning challenge and the gift have something to do with one another, this is common. Let’s say, for example, that a student has significant trouble with the multiple-choice section of tests. Her difficulty should perhaps warrant an accommodation, but she does beautifully on the written portion. Because she performs so well on the writing, she doesn’t appear to need any accommodations for testing. And her writing pulls her overall grade up, too. Unless the teacher is paying close attention to the student’s specific testing skills, this student’s needs and gifts will likely go under the radar.
Feeling like they don’t fit in
It can be hard for twice-exceptional kids to feel like they fit in anywhere. If they are in a gifted class, they’re probably one of the few students who receive extra supports, and if they only receive special education services and are not in a gifted program, they might not be able to closely relate to their peers who share similar challenges but not necessarily the same strengths. This can be a very isolating feeling, which can lead to depression or anxiety when not properly addressed.
They are misunderstood
Twice-exceptional students are often misunderstood. When their learning needs cause them to work more slowly but they “appear” not to have anything preventing them from working at an expected pace, they can be labeled as “lazy” or “unmotivated.” A common example of this is a student who is extremely bright and articulate during lessons and class discussions, but doesn’t produce much when it comes to sitting down and writing. His teachers may think he is just social and prefers to do his learning through talking rather than writing. While this may be true, what his teachers don’t know is that he suffers from dysgraphia, which doesn’t affect his ability to speak articulately but can make writing extremely daunting.
Sometimes misdiagnosed with ADHD or autism
Twice-exceptional students demonstrate a lot of the same behaviors as students with ADHD or autism. They often display similar focusing tendencies as students with ADHD, including a tendency to hyperfocus on areas or skills in which they are especially interested or gifted. Lots of twice-exceptional students also experience some sensory sensitivity, a shared characteristic of students with autism. Because of these similarities, students are sometimes misdiagnosed with ADHD or autism, often in addition to the learning disability or other challenge with which they’ve already been identified.
In Conclusion
There are some very unique challenges to being a student who is gifted and also has special needs. The most important thing to keep in mind in helping these students navigate through the world as successfully as possible is that they most likely just want to be treated like a ‘normal’ kid. It’s so easy for parents to want to push their children when they’ve been identified as “gifted,” or to try to address every single learning need immediately. But sometimes all they want is to feel like they fit in.
English 
Spanish