“Twice Exceptional”

OR, “My Mommy Says I’m Special!”

At the moment I’m taking a break from filling out a quantitative survey on development in twice-exceptional adults. Twice-exceptional, or 2e, refers to people who are diagnosed with both giftedness and LD.

It’s kind of a weird label for kind of a weird condition. As you might have guessed, I’m not entirely happy with it; it carries the air of a consolation prize, a term that has more to do with reassuring parents of 2e kids than the kids themselves. What kid is going to describe herself as “twice-exceptional”? I tried like hell to hide my intelligence from my peers when I was a kid. I didn’t describe myself as “intelligent” or “smart”, let alone “gifted”, because it seemed like a great way to get beat up. There’s no way I would have used a phrase like “twice-exceptional”.

I didn’t really have a choice in that particular matter, though, because 2e was on nobody’s radar when I was in school. I’d been identified as gifted in the third grade, and this was taken as proof that my academic struggles were the result of laziness, carelessness, and “not trying”. Smart kids were supposed to be good at everything. Smart kids were supposed to like school. Smart kids were supposed to be good students who kept their desks neat, showed their work, and turned assignments in on time. This, of course, was in spite of the fact that of the half-dozen kids in my grade who were in the gifted program, only one of them fit these “good student” criteria. The rest of us daydreamed in class, forgot our homework, and could barely close our desks due to the mess inside.

I’m glad that there’s now a word for people like me. It’s much easier to educate people about concurring giftedness and learning disability when you can assign a name to it. You can’t get the word out if there isn’t a word.

I just wish the word were a bit more matter of fact, less of a value judgment. A bit less Special. But I guess “twice-exceptional” is at least more positive than how I often think of myself in my darker moments. At least it’s better than “fux0red”.