Twice exceptional, but still benefitting from support
What Help Is There for Twice Exceptional / 2e Students?
Gifted and Challenged
What is Twice Exceptional or a "2e student"?
Some children have clear strengths-maybe they excel in maths, love writing stories, or show a real gift for music. Others may find learning more challenging because of things like ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, or sensory processing differences. And then there are children who fall into both groups at once. These children are often called "twice-exceptional," or "2e." This simply means they have both notable strengths and real challenges-they may be gifted in some areas while needing extra support in others.
Twice Exceptional, But With Half the Support Needed
"Bright kids will be fine in classrooms by themselves."
"They can't be gifted if they are struggling in school."
"They are smart enough to figure it out."
"They can succeed if they try harder!"
We hear these tropes a lot!
The fact that individuals who are intellectually gifted can still have cognitive weaknesses is a new concept to some parents and educators. New to you or not, these gifted individuals often require specialized support to succeed.
Ignoring either their giftedness or their disability leads to underachievement.
Sometimes these children will magically present with properly, diagnosable learning disabilities. In this magical world, they also get identified in the education process very early. After that, they unfortunately sit on waiting lists for assessments that never come... holding them back from supports intended to help... that no longer qualify as "early interventions" after the years of queueing for them. You might be finding Thinkable Learning Centre because you've navigated this exact journey.
More often though, the journey looks different in Ireland. Rarely is the academic world filled with enough fairydust and magic that you have a child perfectly presenting exact needs that are assessed, identified, and fitting perfectly into the expected clinical and academic criteria.
What do you do as a parent, advocate or educator when the problem is more nuanced and doesn't rise to the level of diagnosable? That's the hard question. That's where Thinkable spends most of its time and where our customers tell us they spend most of their journey -- in the unknown, on a path without a map, unaware of how to get the support they need, with a strong instinct that help IS needed.
High potential and high talent very often come neurologically packaged with extreme strengths and challenges.... but rarely fit into clinical criteria that help appropriate specialized support for those with advanced abilities.
Why Are 2e Kids Hard To Spot?
Twice-exceptional children can sometimes be difficult to recognize. Their strengths might help them work around their difficulties, which can make those challenges less obvious. Or their struggles might overshadow their abilities. In some cases, neither their strengths nor their needs are fully recognized.
Difficulties in School - Gifted and Challenged
Even when a child is identified as 2e, getting the right support can be tricky. A child in a gifted program might still struggle in certain areas, while a child in a support-focused setting might not feel challenged enough. This mismatch can lead to frustration, low confidence, anxiety, or difficulty managing emotions.
Why Are 2e Kids Overlooked?
One reason 2e children are often missed is that many schools focus on whether a child is meeting grade-level expectations. A child who is coping well enough to stay on track may not stand out, even if they're working much harder behind the scenes. For example, a bright child with reading difficulties might use strong reasoning skills to guess unfamiliar words, masking the underlying issue.
In other cases, a child's challenges are noticed first, and their strengths come to light later, which can be surprising for families.
Unique Challenges for Twice Exceptional Students
More About Cognitive Assessments for 2e Students
If you pursue testing, a key thing to look for is how well the professional explains the results afterward. That's where Thinkable Learning Centre stands out from the crowd. It's one thing to produce a big report -- it's quite another to coherently explain the results in a way that leads to clarity and understanding on the path forward for the student involved. All reports are only helpful if you understand what it means for your own child. A good evaluator will take time to walk you through the findings, answer your questions, and help you make sense of next steps. This is our main commitment at Thinkable -- to take the time to get a reliable result for your child in the assessment process AND to make sure that we can clearly and simply explain the results to you afterwards, as well as answer any questions you may have from the results or what they mean.
Some common assessments you might hear about in the Twice Exceptional / 2e community include the WISC, WAIS, Stanford-Binet, Woodcock-Johnson, and others. These tools look at different areas of thinking, learning, and processing. These are considered the gold standards currently for this community. Thinkable Learning Centre is proud to use an innovative and proprietary cognitive assessment based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory (commonly abbreviated to CHC), which is the psychological theory on the structure of human cognitive abilities. Even more specifically, Thinkable's assessment is benchmarked and tested most directly to the Woodcock-Johnson method of assessment so that you can trust the results are meaningful, helpful, qualititive AND quantitative, and will clearly indicate and describe the strengths and weaknesses for each cognitive skill. We want you to be confident when you test and this assessment has provided exceptionally valuable in that effort.
The cognitive assessment space is filled with overpriced reporting and waiting lists. At Thinkable Learning Centre, we are working hard to disrupt that "norm" by offering NO WAITING LIST for cognitive assessments and by offering them at a price that helps you get the help you need now - not when you've saved up for it. Too often, cognitive assessments cost €1500-2500 in Dublin. Ours is never higher than €250. Too often, the waitlist is years long. We have availability this week.
How Do I Know if My Child is 2e or Twice Exceptional?
A big clue for 2e children is a gap between what they seem capable of and what they actually produce. Adults may say things like, "They have so much potential-why aren't they trying harder?" In reality, many of these children are trying very hard. They often use their strengths (like reasoning or creativity) to work around their challenges. This can hide their struggles. At other times, their challenges can hide just how capable they really are.
Recognizing twice-exceptional children starts with understanding that strengths and challenges can exist together. If a child shows strong abilities in some areas but struggles in others (or seems far ahead overall but has one area of difficulty!) it may be worth looking more closely. A comprehensive evaluation, such as a neuropsychological assessment or a standardized cognitive assessment like Thinkable Learning Centre provides, can help build a clearer picture of how a child learns -- including both strengths and areas where support is needed.
When these children aren't well understood, it can lead to real difficulties for them-both in school and emotionally. Sadly, adults who don't recognize 2e traits may use discouraging language like "lazy," "not trying," or "doesn't care," which can be very hurtful and misleading.
2e children are often described as "smart but struggling." If that sounds like your child, it's worth taking a closer look. Many parents have a strong gut feeling when something doesn't quite add up. To get clearer answers, families often turn to professional evaluations, such as testing with a neuropsychologist or another specialist who can assess both strengths (like giftedness) and learning differences. Schools may also offer evaluations to determine if supports are needed.
It's our opinion that the student's experience can be improved by addressing any cognitive weaknesses that are present. Forget the cookie-cutter approach and look at just YOUR child and find what their differences are. That's what we do. It all starts with a simple cognitive assessment.
How does it work? Three Steps. That's All It Takes. Our expert team guides every student (and their parents/partners!) through a three-step process: Assessment, engagement about the Results, and then Training for Strength. Each step is entirely personalized and crafted to the student's specific learning needs as identified by our world-class assessment. This process allows us cater to individual cognitive skill combinations that are unique to each individual. The outcomes our students enjoy as a result of completing our brain training programs include: increased processing speed, memory, attention, and all aspects of the cognitive learning process -- benefits that group work and private tuition can never meaningfully offer. Most students also get the secondary advantage of a measurable increase in reading proficiency!
We Do Things Differently At Thinkable!
Step One
Assessment is key. We evaluate every student's auditory, visual, memory, attention, language, & critical thinking skills. The cognitive skills results will outline their core strengths and areas for improvement (qualitatively & quantitatively), often validating concerns in specific & measurable ways.
Step Two
Programs are personalized. What you need -- nothing less, nothing more. Once skill differences are identified, we customize the brain training program that can target learning challenges. Interactive sessions keep students motivated and engaged, slowly building confidence in their new abilities.
Step Three
Train the brain! Repetition and intensity are the key to achieving a neuroplastic effect from brain training. Our trainers work with a singular focus of creating lasting outcomes by using the best neurocognitive methods available in our programs. Our activities are fun, engaging, and challenging.
No Two Brains Are The Same!
Because no two brains are the same (not even in identical twins!), no two programs will be either!
Thinkable specializes in creating bespoke programs that address this reality, but even moreso for students with 2e challenges. Our brain training focuses on using evidence-based interventions associated with attention and focus issues, backed by years of robust neurocognitive research. One of our favorite program offerings, BrainRx cognitive skills training, has become quite popular among private academy IB/Leaving Cert students and tech professionals in Dublin. Thinkable is the only fully-licensed and expertly-trained BrainRx provider in Dublin. Accept no substitutes!
In addition to BrainRx programs, Thinkable also offers several of our 2e students a variety of other customized cognitive learning options. One in particular to mention is a special auxiliary reading program (ReadRx) to assist with reading-specific challenges that are commonly associated with attention issues. Thinkable is the only provider of ReadRx in Ireland - there are no direct comparisons to it on the island! Parents and teachers that may be familiar with Orton-Gillingham methods, which are foundational, teacher-led, and take a multisensory approach to teaching reading and spelling, may be happy to learn that ReadRx combines these structured literacy principles with simultaneous cognitive skills training for better outcomes than either intervention alone can provide. The result is a confident and capable reader!
Primary & Secondary Benefits of Brain Training
Attention gains may be the primary benefit you are looking to achieve with a brain training program for 2e students, but their are a myriad of secondary benefits -- from increases in IQ (Thinkable exceeds the average IQ increases!), to significant improvements in emotional regulation and/or impulse control.
None of these may seem secondary for the students (or parents) currently navigating these struggles, but they are just a few of the additional perks you are likely to experience from completing one of our brain training programs. We mask challenging with fun, repetition with play, and we keep students engaged with interesting tasks that they look forward to in their sessions. Don't get us wrong -- our programs are hard work and our students earn every single success that they achieve. We celebrate those successes with them every step of the way. Of course individual results may vary. We’d love the opportunity to work with you and your student see what successes lie ahead.
Getting the attention help your child needs starts with a cognitive skills assessment. The rest is as easy as 1-2-3 for us. Really.
We can help. We mean it.
Final Thought...
When a child's strengths are noticed but their challenges are not, they may be unfairly labeled as lazy or unmotivated. When challenges are noticed but strengths are overlooked, too much focus can be placed on what they struggle with instead of what they do well.
When neither is recognized, children can fall into a "gray area," where their abilities and needs are both missed. This can be one of the most difficult situations for a 2e child.
Ideally, we want a full picture: understanding both strengths and challenges, so we can support children in a balanced way. There's no one-size-fits-all solution. 2e children are complex, and supporting them takes time, flexibility, and thoughtful planning.
With the right understanding and support, these children can grow into confident learners who use their strengths to thrive.
