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Young Scholars Academy is a virtual village that helps twice-exceptional & differently-wired students to feel seen, nurtured, and happy as heck through strength-based courses, camps, and community!

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Kyla Hunte 10/6/24 Kyla Hunte 10/6/24

Rethinking Parenting Approaches For PDA Children

Parenting a child with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) can feel isolating and challenging, especially as traditional approaches often miss the mark. If you’re raising a child with a PDA profile, this article offers a fresh perspective—one centered on empathy, collaboration, and flexibility.

Through personal insights and actionable tips, you’ll explore how small adjustments can create a more harmonious home life and help your child thrive. From reducing the pressure of daily routines to prioritizing self-care, this guide will empower you to transform struggles into strengths for both you and your child.

Malikai Bass 8/5/24 Malikai Bass 8/5/24

Finding Heroes in the Cubing Community: Importance Of Neurodivergent Mentors For Your Child

Who are your child’s heroes? What adults do they see as examples of the possibilities in their future? Speedcubing, or the hobby of solving twisty puzzles like the Rubik’s Cube, is a gold mine of twice-exceptional adults and peers. Solving the cube alone gave me confidence that I could do hard things and as I joined the community. Through virtual competitions, discussion boards, and meet-ups I looked around the room and saw people like me. I met people who were going to college, exploring their passions, starting businesses, and who had support needs and challenges like mine. Speedcubing wasn’t the only place I found my people, as I grew, I’d find them in card shops, hockey rinks, and video game servers, but it was the first and maybe it’ll be the first for your child too.

Amber K Willburn 6/3/24 Amber K Willburn 6/3/24

Breaking Up With Public School And Finding A School That Fits

Finding the right fit for a twice-exceptional student can feel like ordering clothes from Wish. Everything looks really good online, but then never fits in all the right places. They may have a great program for reading, but it comes at the cost of child autonomy. T

Amber K Willburn 3/18/24 Amber K Willburn 3/18/24

Deliberate Practice – Growing as a Parent

This is all well and good for learning a musical instrument or growing in a new field, but how does deliberate practice look for families and parents? While parenting may not come with a manual, it does come with a mountain of expectations and familial and social scripts. Many parents when they find out they are expecting read all of the books, but then once that child arrives, much of that information goes out the window. So, how do we get better?

Dr. Joy Lawson Davis 2/29/24 Dr. Joy Lawson Davis 2/29/24

Intentionally Opening the World of Twice Exceptionality for Culturally Diverse Learners

Several years ago, as I continued to engage with school leaders and advocates to close the gaps in gifted education services, particularly as related to meeting the needs of our most underserved populations, I discovered another population of students that was gravely underserved in gifted and advanced learner services.

This discovery came about from multiple contexts, including but not limited to—conversations with colleagues and culturally diverse parents, meetings with school personnel, a review of the literature, and continuously keeping track of online services that were erupting across the nation designed to draw attention to the needs of twice-exceptional learners.

Across all these groups what became evident was that once again, culturally diverse learners—in particular Black, Brown, and low-income gifted learners were being overlooked. As a lifetime advocate and scholar representing underrepresented gifted learners, I felt compelled to speak up.

Sam Young 2/19/24 Sam Young 2/19/24

Your Child’s Big Leap: A Framework For Unleashing Your Kiddo’s Strengths

Is your child a vibrant ray of sunshine in your world, radiating unique interests, creativity, and curiosity at home, but seems to be dimmed by the demands of school and other “social norms”?

Much of life can have both us and our kiddos wondering, "What am I doing wrong?

Let’s be clear, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you or your child! Quite the contrary…

The problem that you’re facing is simply a challenge of alignment- your kiddo may be out of alignment with their strengths and the tasks that they’re being asked to do.

Would you like to know how to help your kiddo break free from this cycle? It starts by….

Amber K Willburn 1/30/24 Amber K Willburn 1/30/24

Creating Healthy Family Scripts When There’s No Manual

What do you do when your parent’s advice for raising your neurodivergent kiddo doesn’t work?

We learn a lot of things from our parents. We develop familial scripts, ways of talking and connecting that are often generational and unique to a family. Have you ever had the words your parents said to you fall out of your mouth?

What happens, though, when these scripts no longer work? We learn many things from our families, but even in the best of circumstances, what we learn may not fit the situation we have. We may not follow the cultural life scripts of our families. We may have children that no previous family script prepares us for.

Amber K Willburn 1/8/24 Amber K Willburn 1/8/24

Creating A Strength-Based Life With Intentions, Not Resolutions

Happy New Year! For many people, the new year means a chance to create a resolution. The thing is, resolutions can often include a lot of shame.

Intentions, on the other hand, are built on affirmations and goals. Instead of making a resolution this year, I invite you to set intentions around building strength-based opportunities in your child’s life.

Here are a few tips on setting intentions:

1. Focus on the present. When setting intentions, framing the intention in the present tense is important. Doing things you already believe you can do is way easier than trying to achieve something in which you doubt yourself...

Amber K Willburn 12/11/23 Amber K Willburn 12/11/23

When All the Pieces Fall

Once upon a September… I went through an intense depressive lull. For those of you who have depression or love someone who does, you know that it can be cyclical or seasonal.

Depression can look like a thousand things. My depression looked like a dark tide creeping in.

Once my depression hit, I felt like I was underwater. This was not a tide – it was a tsunami, and I could not catch my breath.

But depressive lulls, like tides, have an ebb and a flow.

The thing we can’t see in the middle of depression is that so many of the things we thought were broken or irreparably harmed are just...

Sam Young 11/18/22 Sam Young 11/18/22

Thankfulness = More Happiness ⬆️

Societal pressures often have us focusing on what we don’t have… Whether it be social media, advertisements, catching up around the watering hole, keeping up with the Joneses, etc.

Focusing on what we don’t have naturally causes us to feel down and out.

Did you know one of the best ways to combat this?

Regularly inventorying your thankfulness/gratitude can lead to more happiness and confidence!

Want to give it a try? 😄

Go ahead! Grab a piece of paper/open a doc and write down one/all of the following:

Sam Young 11/22/21 Sam Young 11/22/21

Thankfulness + Reflection= More Happiness

In The Spirit of Thanksgiving

“Energy flows where the mind goes” -Unknown

Society often has us focusing on what we don’t have… This naturally causes us to feel down and out. Subsequently, we become more susceptible to consumer behavior to fill the void. We look externally for our answers.

Did you know one of the best ways to combat this?

Regularly inventorying your thankfulness/gratitude can lead to more happiness and confidence!

Want it give it a try? 😄

Grab a piece of paper/open a doc and write down one/all of the following:

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