Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Actual Definition of 2E

Hello there,

I was wondering if someone could tell me the actual definition of twice exceptional. I was under the impression that it meant that you could have a learning challenge that could mask giftedness to a certain degree.

My son's school is calling my son twice exceptional because he is gifted but also has an autoimmune disease that causes physical problems. Is that right?

What is their motivation for using the 2E label?

I honestly have no idea. They just said it, like "Well, he's 2E so..." When I asked them why they thought he was 2E they said that because of his disease he was "just automatically" that.

It was not in response to his test scores or anything academic.

Hoagies has some links on 2E that might be helpful:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/special_needs.htm
"[Twice exceptional] children may be gifted and ADD, gifted and dyslexic, gifted and just about any physical or learning disability you can imagine (and probably a few you can't)."

and http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm

Thanks for the links. After reading the list, I think they may be using 2E because he has pain and swelling in his hands that make it hard to write for long periods of time. They were talking about getting him an alphasmart or letting him use a scribe because of it. I guess I just didn't realize the second E could be from a physical condition.

Does anyone have experience with an alphasmart of Dragon speaking naturally? Are they fast enough to keep up?

I think that the label could be reasonably applied in this case, I'm just wondering if being "2E" means something more to the school. Do they have some kind of special requirements for 2E kids to receive GT services? Does he have other rights due to his physical disability?

I'm asking because DS' K teacher initially refused to allow him a gradeskip because he is on a 504 plan. But the 504 plan is for egg allergy, not for any learning issue! So ask questions about what being 2E means in terms of school policies/procedures.

I've heard that Alphasmart works better for kids. It can be tricky to train the voice recognition software. We haven't tried either ourselves. I am teaching DD to type on a regular computer keyboard.

uuummm thanks for the expalination.... this means ds7 is 2e

gifted and adhd, ...........................and cute as a button!