The term twice exceptional, or 2e, refers to individuals recognized as both gifted and neurodivergent, meaning a student can be simultaneously very strong or gifted at one task and very weak or incapable at another. Because of this duality, a twice-exceptional person's strengths, weaknesses and struggles may go unnoticed or unsupported, since precocious traits such as hyperlexia are more apparent than subtler day-to-day difficulties, which can lead to disbelief, judgment and alienation. The term first appeared in James J. Gallagher's 1988 article A National Agenda for Educating Gifted Students, and describes a gifted individual, meaning someone with high ability compared to same-age peers, who also carries at least one neurodivergent trait, a cognitive profile that differs from what is considered neurotypical; an extreme form of twice exceptionality is savant syndrome.
Facts
Core ClaimA twice-exceptional (2e) student is simultaneously gifted at some tasks and significantly impaired at others, a duality that can leave both the giftedness and the difficulty unnoticed or unsupported. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Twice exceptional
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph
The term twice-exceptional or 2e refers to individuals acknowledged as gifted and neurodivergent. As a literal interpretation implies, it means a student is simultaneously very strong or gifted at some task but also very weak or incapable of another task.
History section
The term "twice-exceptional" first appeared in James J. Gallagher's 1988 article "National Agenda for Educating Gifted Students: Statement of Priorities".
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