Book by Kelly Hirt (GHF Press, January, 2018)
The latest release from GHF press, part of the Perspectives in Gifted Homeschooling Series, is
Boost: 12 Effective Ways to Lift Up Our Twice-Exceptional Children. Author Kelly Hirt is both a public school teacher with 25 years of experience and a homeschooling parent of a twice-exceptional son.
She begins the 100-page softcover book by explaining how she came to write it. It stems, in part, from her classroom experiences with the students who “stumped” her, those who she saw as “quirky, intense, or complicated.” She explains that she wanted to help these children, “but I did not know what to do.” She just knew that “we needed something different for these kids.”
An even greater impetus to writing the book, however, has been Hirt’s own experiences in raising her son, who she realized “was one of these children.” She found that in school, it was not the academics that were hard for her child, it was “all of the other components that made up his school experience: the classroom noise, crowded halls, lunchroom smells, friendship issues, repetition of already-covered material, number of transitions — the expectation that everyone march to the same beat.” Her son’s combination of gifts and challenges led Hirt into the world of twice-exceptionality and the difficulties of getting a 2e learner’s needs met in a public school setting.
Hirt has been able to distill what she’s found to be critical to the success of 2e children into 12 strategies that she calls boosts. These strategies, each covered in its own chapter, are aimed at parents as well as educators; and they encompass “tried techniques, new approaches, and a positive way of thinking.” The following table contains a brief overview of each boost.
| Boost Strategy |
Chapter Description |
| 1: Educate |
Urges readers to educate themselves as well as educate children about the unique challenges of twice-exceptionality |
| 2: Communicate |
Discusses the importance of modeling and practicing communication skills with 2e learners, who are often weak in this area |
| 3: Investigate |
Stresses the importance of identifying a 2e learner’s areas of interest and providing opportunities and time for exploring them |
| 4: Separate |
Looks at the importance of using an understanding of twice-exceptionality to put a 2e child’s struggles and behaviors into perspective |
| 5: Anticipate |
Discusses how using past experiences to plan and prepare in advance can help reduce stress or avert difficult situations |
| 6: Accommodate |
Promotes the idea that a “child who needs more or less of something – or something different altogether – should not be considered a burden” |
| 7: Accelerate |
Looks at the benefits of increasing the learning pace for 2e learners where needed, from lessons, to subjects, to grades |
| 8: Fascinate |
Discusses the importance of sparking the interest of 2e children and keeping them engaged |
| 9: Participate |
Emphasizes the importance having everyone involved in 2e learners’ education be knowledgeable about their needs and work together to enable them to be successful |
| 10: Evaluate |
Lays out the need to use information gained by “appraising actions and interventions in a careful and thoughtful way” to better support 2e students |
| 11: Negotiate |
Stresses the benefits for parents, teachers, and students of developing good negotiation skills |
| 12: Appreciate |
Discusses the need to appreciate our 2e children and students for the unique individuals they are |
The book is concise and clearly written, making it a quick, easy read. Hirt presents her strategies in a way that makes them seem doable, which should provide reassurance and encouragement to parents and teachers new to the 2e world.
For those who want to read more of Hirt’s writing, she has a blog: MyTwiceBakedPotato.com. Her purpose in starting the blog, as she states at the end of the book, is to educate parents and to connect with other families parenting a twice-exceptional child.
Find Boost at the site of GHF (https://goo.gl/3K94hA), or at
Amazon (
https://amzn.to/2LfLHDr).
