Path Taker
Twice Exceptional (2E) Children
So Much Potential So Little Support
Cultivating and Comprehending 2e Children
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Orchid children, often referred to as "2e" (twice exceptional) children, exhibit a unique blend of exceptional abilities alongside challenges such as learning disabilities or developmental disorders. Similar to delicate orchids that require specialized care to flourish, these children thrive under specific conditions tailored to their individual needs. Just as orchids may struggle to adapt to diverse environments, 2e children may face difficulties in traditional educational settings but demonstrate remarkable talents in specialized areas. Understanding and supporting their complexities is essential to unlocking their full potential, nurturing both their exceptional abilities and addressing their challenges to foster growth and development.
Understanding the needs of orchids offers valuable insights into creating environments conducive to their flourishing. By studying their natural habitats and behaviors, we can replicate the conditions necessary for their optimal growth. Similarly, comprehending the unique characteristics and challenges of 2e children allows us to tailor environments that support their individual journeys. By recognizing their diverse abilities and perspectives, we can create a path that cater to their specific needs, preferences, learning styles and sensitivities. Just as orchids require the right balance of light, moisture, and nutrients to thrive, 2e children thrive when provided with personalized approaches that celebrate their strengths while addressing their challenges. By understanding the unique way they navigate the world, we empower them to find their own paths to success, fostering environments where they can truly blossom and reach their full potential.
A Unique Approach for the Most Creative Child.
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At Gifted ND, we offer a range of services for the 2e (twice-exceptional) community. We develop creative communities specifically tailored for 2e individuals – spaces where parents and children can relocate to heal, learn, and escape the increasing pollution of urban environments. We assist parents and teachers in creating microschools for 2e children, fostering environments where they can connect with others like themselves.
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Our primary focus is on researching, understanding, and developing new theories to define what creative intelligence is and how to cultivate those who possess it at high levels. Recognizing that individuals with the highest levels of creative intelligence are often those identified as 2e, our goal is to provide coaching services as unique as the individuals we serve. This begins with understanding how their distinct intelligence operates.
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Our research has shown that nurturing creative intelligence involves fostering not only cognitive intelligence (of the mind) but also somatic intelligence (of the body). Using this approach, we guide parents in developing unique paths for their 2e (twice-exceptional) children. We emphasize the big picture and the cultivation of distinct paths for each unique child, paving the way for a future where they can thrive. We've discovered that for 2e children, healing and learning are intertwined. The same path that fosters learning and growth, potentially creating a prodigy, is also capable of healing or reducing the impact of various conditions, including:
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Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
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Selective Mutism
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Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
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Social Communication Disorder
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Anxiety Disorders (such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder)
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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Tourette Syndrome
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Conduct Disorder
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) (Note: ODD is listed twice; consider removing one instance)
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Eating Disorders
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Chronic Health Conditions/Sickness
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Sleep Disorders
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Autoimmune Disorders
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Mood Disorders.
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Gaming With Aedan
Support for Children
Your child has doctors, therapists, tutors, and more. But do they have friends?
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Gifted Neurodivergents are rare. Because of this, your child has fewer opportunities to find others like them in their school or community activities. What happens when they find like-minded peers? They get excited, loud, boisterous— everything a child displays when they feel happy. Sadly, this prompts the adults in charge to quickly separate them from their new friends because they are having too much fun.
In most situations, your child —the child with the greatest need for peers and the mirroring they provide— is actively kept apart from the children most like them. It is because of this that the peer mirroring “normal” kids experience is something 2E kids have no chance of matching. Is there really any surprise, then, that the science finds 2e children might be socially undeveloped (too mature or too immature)?
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Parents will go to great lengths to find a school that gives their children like-minded peers. Yet for most Gifted Neurodivergent 2e children such a school does not exist. This is why we came up with Mentoring with Aedan - an online opportunity for your child to meet with a mentor like them. Aedan provides your child with mentoring and healthy mirroring they need to round out their development socially.
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Why Aedan?
Not too long ago, Aedan was a Gifted ND kid himself. He remembers how hard, frustrating, and lonely life could be. While gaming, talking, hanging out online with Aedan, your child will learn that they are worthy of good friendships. They get the opportunity to see what healthy peer interactions look like. Mentoring with Aedan has repeatedly been a saving grace for a kid who feels truly alone.
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The most sensitive children learn immensely from mirroring. This needed socialization is left uncultivated in our education and medical systems. We all learn from seeing someone like ourselves move through the world. It helps us to understand how exceptional and normal we are. It helps us to move through the world confident our authentic selves are everything they are supposed to be.
Aedan's years of improv acting and innate giftedness in people quickly allows him to see and return the patterns of other people. This makes him a rare and amazing mentor. The gift he gives, the to the children he works with, is one that keeps giving for the all the years that follow. His ability to see someone who really needs to be seen, to hear them when they really need to be heard and to teach them the value they offer the world is possibly the most missing and necessary lesson of our culture today.
