What twice-exceptional means

Gifted and Challenged, at the Same Time

Quick answer A twice-exceptional (2e) student simultaneously has the characteristics of a gifted or high-potential learner and the characteristics of a student with a disability, such as dyslexia, ADHD, or autism. To be identified as 2e, a student must have both high aptitude and a disability. Because their strengths and challenges can mask one another, both the giftedness and the disability are often missed, and the student's talent goes undeveloped.

A 2e student who reads below grade level may also be a gifted storyteller. A student who cannot sit still may also be an inventive problem-solver. A student who struggles with writing may reason brilliantly aloud. When schools focus only on the deficit, some parents and teachers begin to believe the student is lazy or unmotivated, when in fact the student's real abilities are simply going unseen.

This is the central challenge of twice-exceptional education, and it is one the Schoolwide Enrichment Model was built to solve: find the strength, and develop it.

The core idea

Strengths First, Not Deficits First

The approach used in schools for 2e students is almost always deficit-based: remediation and behavior plans that focus on what a student cannot do. As Reis and Renzulli have written, this approach does not address how these complex students actually learn, or the reality that they need to be challenged. Few are.

A strength-based, talent-focused approach begins with what the student can do. It uses knowledge of the student's strengths, cognitive profile, learning preferences, interests, and talents to engage them in learning. Research shows that as educators shift attention from a 2e student's disability toward their strengths and gifts, the student becomes more engaged in school and more successful in the creative work they pursue in areas of personal interest, while still receiving support for their needs.

The principle Support the need. Develop the talent. A 2e student's disability is real and must be supported, but it is their strengths that unlock engagement, and engagement is what makes everything else, including the hard work of addressing a disability, possible.
How Renzulli Learning helps

Identify the Strength, Develop the Talent

See the strength a deficit evaluation misses. The Renzulli Profiler surfaces each student's interests, learning styles, and expression styles in 20+ languages, revealing talents that testing focused on weakness would never find.
Engage through genuine interest. 40,000+ curated enrichment activities connect the student to what they love, so learning starts from strength rather than from remediation.
Develop talent through creative productivity. Project-Based Learning and the Enrichment Triad move students to Type III work, creating original products, where 2e students so often excel and where their gifts become visible.
Build the skills they need most. Strengths and interests become the vehicle for developing academic skills, self-regulation, executive function, and emotional regulation, the very areas 2e students need supported, now built through what engages them.
Document the whole student. The Total Talent Portfolio records the student's talents, growth, and best work, giving teachers, families, and the student a strengths-based picture that a deficit-focused file never provides.
Where 2e students shine

Common Strength Areas for Twice-Exceptional Learners

Reis and colleagues found that academically successful 2e students often excel in specific areas, in and out of school. The platform is built to surface and develop exactly these kinds of strengths:

Performing & Fine Arts

Music, dance, drama, and set design; color, texture, photography, fashion, and graphic design. Students may shine on stage or behind it.

Writing & E-Journalism

Recording events, online writing, non-fiction, prose, and poetry. A student who struggles to decode text may be a powerful storyteller.

Mathematics & Sciences

Numbers, patterns, and logic; biology, chemistry, environmental science. Strong reasoning that a reading or writing deficit can hide.

Beyond the Classroom

Athletics, computer science, leadership, chess, and building complex designs. Real talent that a school-only view would miss.

The research

A Research-Based Approach to Twice-Exceptionality

Renzulli Learning's approach to 2e learners is the applied form of a sustained research record on strength-based, talent-focused education:

Reis & Renzulli (2020). Parenting for strengths: Embracing the challenges of raising children identified as twice exceptional. Gifted Education International. Argues that 2e students are too often served through a deficit-based lens and that a talent development approach is a non-negotiable component of educating them.
Baum, Schader & Hebert (2014). Through a different lens: Reflecting on a strengths-based, talent-focused approach for twice-exceptional learners. Gifted Child Quarterly. Defines the strengths-based, talent-focused framework for 2e learners.
Reis, Baum & Burke (2014). An operational definition of twice-exceptional learners: Implications and applications. Gifted Child Quarterly, 58(3), 217 to 230. Establishes the widely used definition of 2e as students with both high potential and a disability.
Reis & Renzulli (2025). Research-based strength-based teaching and support strategies for twice-exceptional high school students with autism spectrum disorder. Behavioral Sciences, 15(6), 834. Part of the University of Connecticut's Project 2e-ASD, supported by a Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education grant, this research found that interest-based enrichment and shared-interest activities support both academic achievement and social-emotional development for talented students with autism.

Explore the full research library and the Renzulli Center at the University of Connecticut. Part of Renzulli Learning's Special Populations approach.

Frequently asked questions

Twice-Exceptional Learners: Common Questions

A twice-exceptional, or 2e, student simultaneously has characteristics of gifted or high-potential students and characteristics of a student with a disability. To be identified as 2e, a student must have both high aptitude and a disability, such as dyslexia, ADHD, or autism spectrum disorder. Because their strengths and challenges can mask one another, both the giftedness and the disability are often missed.
Schools most often serve 2e students through a deficit-based lens, remediation and behavior plans focused on weaknesses, which does not address how these students learn or the reality that they need to be challenged. Research by Reis, Renzulli, and Baum shows that when educators shift attention toward a 2e student's strengths and provide enrichment, the student becomes more engaged and more successful, while still receiving support for their needs.
Renzulli Learning uses a strength-based, talent-focused approach. The Renzulli Profiler identifies each 2e student's interests, learning styles, and expression styles; the platform matches personalized enrichment and project-based learning to those strengths; and the Total Talent Portfolio documents talent and growth, so a student's gifts are developed rather than hidden behind their challenges.
Research by Reis and colleagues found that academically successful 2e students often excel in specific areas such as the performing arts, e-journalism and writing, mathematics, history, the fine arts, and the sciences, as well as in athletics, computer science, leadership, dance, or chess. Identifying and developing these strengths is central to the talent-focused approach.
Yes. The strength-based, talent-focused approach applies across the disabilities that co-occur with high potential. Research on twice-exceptional students with autism spectrum disorder (2e-ASD) documents how strength-based practices support both academic achievement and social-emotional development, often through deep interests and areas of talent. The same principles apply to students with dyslexia and ADHD.

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