Direction to the Future—Paul Beljan

I began working with gifted children as a post-doctoral fellow in 1994. The term twice exceptional (2e) came along much later. It was an epiphany to me that the concept of 2e was even necessary. That is, I was surprised that a population of professionals existed who actually failed to consider that gifted children would not have spectrum disorder, learning disorders, or any other neuropsychological deficit with the same regularity as any other child.    

I spoke with several top gifted educators about 2e for this brief writing and got a rude awakening. I thought that by now 2e was widely accepted and numerous interventions available. These educators acknowledged that over the past 15 years the term 2e has become a popularly-used descriptor among parents and educators who are already “in the know” about giftedness. Unfortunately, outside of this group, and often within the group, the concept of 2e is misunderstood, under or incorrectly diagnosed, and underserved when correctly diagnosed. The term is out there (awareness), but the infrastructure or will to serve it is not (no insight).