Short description: Participants gain a deep understanding of the 2e profile as well as common challenges and behavior manifested from these challenges. Educators and parents learn specific strategies in order to respond rather than react in the classroom and home, and encourage the 2e child’s collaboration in order to bring out the best and raise their self-confidence. 

Extended Description:  The objective of this presentation is to empower parents, educators and professionals to bring out the best and raise self-confidence in twice exceptional kids through an understanding of the 2e person’s inner experience, through strategies that are immediately applicable for parents and educators, and through advocacy tips necessary to encourage the adults in 2e kids’ lives to implement best practices. In order to accomplish this, we will take a deep dive into the 2e profile looking at definitions of giftedness, myths surrounding the profile, discussing 2e characteristics: asynchronous development, perfectionism/anxiety and OEs. We will discuss how gifted brains differ from neuro-typical brains and will introduce the idea of responsive parenting and teaching rather than reactive parenting and teaching.  To this participants will learn specific strategies that are particularly impactful for the 2e population including strategies to forge and maintain personal connections, strategies for positively reframing typical 2e characteristics and behaviors and maintaining a strengths-based approach, how to anticipate challenging behavior by identifying lagging skills and unsolved problems, how to give meaningful choices that allow the child to take control, and the importance of sense of humor and exercise for this population. The overarching message is that all kids want to do well and that 2e kids come with incredible potential because, not despite, their differences.  We must circle the wagons of the adults in 2e kids’ lives in order to support them in a way that strengthens their self-confidence so they can thrive

Short Desription: Learn why your twice exceptional student seems “over sensitive” or reacts in  ways that appear out of sync to what bothers them. Discover how to respond rather than react to your 2e students’ challenging behavior.  Learn why emotion regulation seems like a 2e characteristic, the formula for emotion regulation and responses to bring calm to your classroom and home.

Long description: Emotion regulation is often a challenge for twice exceptional children. Grappling with intensities, a strong sense of justice, frequently challenged with output and frustrated by a lack of social nuance, our 2e learners can act out in ways that seem out of sync with what is frustrating them at a particular moment. It is imperative to understand what lies beneath behavior and to consider that seemingly severe responses, may be triggered by environments where they feel repeatedly misunderstood. In this session gain a deep understanding of the 2e profile and why it lends itself to emotion dysregulation, a ‘Formula for Emotional Dysregulation’ how to understand what underlies your child’s/student’s behavior, and best ways to respond, rather than react, in order to stop or shorten the downward cycle. Using research and practice, the presenter will also discuss screen time as a potential cause for dysregulation — and will share an approach to help 2e kids understand how screen time may affect their ability to regulate emotions, as well as a suggested structure for addressing screen time. Attendees will learn strategies for reducing anxiety which is often attendant to emotion dysregulation, and will be able to recognize what helps a 2e child to fill (or empty) his ‘bucket of resilience.

Objectives:

Attendees will learn why the 2e profile includes emotion dysregulation.

Attendees will understand what precedes emotion dysregulation and the attendant challenging behavior.

Attendees will gain effective and practical interventions to address emotion dysregulation for the home and classroom.

Short Description: Most people think Executive Functioning skills are about ‘organizing stuff.’ There’s so much more! One could say successful executive functioning is the basis for enjoying life. We’ll talk about executive functioning as it relates to attention, mood and behavior specific to gifted and twice exceptional learners. You’ll learn the “Four Cs” for impactful EF instruction and to reduce teacher overwhelm. When we draw on our own strengths as well as our students’, teaching EF skills can be fun!

Short Description: Challenging behavior in gifted and 2e students can lead to parent/teacher and teacher/student conflict. In order to successfully communicate in a collaborative manner as well as foster open communication to support gifted and 2e learners, the adults at the table must be able to cooperate and manage their own emotional responses. In this session, participants will benefit from unraveling the complicated challenges of the gifted and 2e profile, why communication is often challenging between parents and teachers and how to overcome those obstacles to create a collaborative partnership of understanding and impactful strategies.

Short Description: When faced with a transition, gifted and 2e learners often resist. The fear of the unknown, fear of failure, or absence of trust may drive their refusal and withdrawal. Parents and educators find themselves asking, begging, and pleading with their gifted or 2e kid to do something, go somewhere or try something new. It’s hard to find empathy when you’ve just got to get out the door, or when your child or student is refusing to do something you know they’ll love or enjoy. This session discusses how to set up a delicate balance of structure and flexibility to ease the strain of transition for our gifted and 2e learners.

Short Description: “Easy things are hard and hard things are easy” for gifted children with ADHD. Caregivers and educators will deeply understand the similarities and differences of gifted and ADHD profiles and why one elicits a ‘glass half full,’ and the other a ‘glass half empty’ response. Attendees learn strategies and advocacy tools to bring out the best and raise self-confidence in Gifted/ADHD learners.

Long description: The objective of this presentation is to empower parents, educators and professionals to bring out the best and raise self-confidence in twice exceptional learners through an understanding of the 2e person’s inner experience, through strategies that are immediately applicable for parents and educators, and through advocacy tips necessary to encourage the adults in these learners’ lives to implement best practices. We will take a deep dive into the 2e profile juxtaposing definitions of giftedness and ADHD, myths surrounding the profiles, discussing characteristics. We will discuss how gifted brains differ from neuro-typical brains and will teach responsive rather than reactive parenting and teaching.  Specific strategies that are particularly impactful include: forging and maintain personal connections, reframing typical gifted/ADHD characteristics and behaviors, anticipating challenging behavior by identifying lagging skills and unsolved problems, giving meaningful choices that allow the child to take control, and utilizing sense of humor and exercise. The overarching conclusion is that all kids want to do well and that gifted/ADHD kids come with incredible potential (super powers) because, not in spite, of their differences.  We must circle the wagons of the adults in twice exceptional kids’ lives in order to support them in a way that strengthens their self-confidence and allows them to thrive. (Sources: A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children, To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled, The Columbus Group Definition of Gifted, Thinking Smart About Twice Exceptional Learners: Steps for Finding Them and Strategies for Catering to them Appropriately, DSM-V, various sources from Piechowski, Renzulli, Silverman, Baum)

Learning Outcomes:

Learning Outcome 1: Differentiate the diagnoses of gifted and ADHD and why it’s important to consider each learner individually as opposed to the sum of their diagnoses.

Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate the effects of being twice exceptional through research and anecdotal evidence.

Learning Outcome 3: Analyze the P-R-A-I-S-E(TM) model of interventions for this population (including Personal connection, Reframe, Anticipate, Incentives and Choices, Sense of humor and Exercise.)

Short Description: This interactive session will help gifted and 2e adults better understand their own reactions and emotions (positive and negative) in their adult relationships. Using specific strategies participants will gain understanding of themselves and their partners in order to experience more fulfilling relationships including understanding, empathy, and self-care.

Join me as together we explore the ‘True Meaning of Giftedness and Twice Exceptionality’, then view the award-winning 53 minute documentary, “2e: Twice Exceptional” produced by Hollywood producer, Tom Ropelewski and conclude the evening with a robust discussion and Q&A session.