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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!
Most Popular Blogs
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How A Strength-Based School Year Will Change Your Child’s Life!
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Goodbye to Social Skills Classes. Hello to Dungeons & Dragons!
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Creating Learning Plans That Work! The 3 KEY Ingredients
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Alternative Education Paths: Removing Barriers to Learning
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The Most Overlooked Support for 2e Students: Acceleration
Whether you're a parent, educator, or simply passionate about supporting neurodivergent learners, this blog is your go-to resource for all things related to strength-based education and fostering a community of belonging.
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Small is All: Embracing a New Mindset as Parents of 2e Kids
In today’s fast-paced, “go-big-or-go-home” society, it’s easy as parents to feel overwhelmed by the emphasis placed on our children’s achievement and success. This pressure is particularly acute for parents of twice-exceptional (2e) children, as we are constantly bombarded with deficit-based narratives about our kids—daily calls from schools regarding behavior, discussions about unmet IEP goals, and the feeling of constant negativity surrounding our children’s ability to meet expectations.
Like many parents, I find this constant commentary about what my child “can't do”, “isn't doing”, and “should be able to do by now” debilitating. This deficit-based narrative is dangerous because it often impacts our perception of ourselves as parents. It can leave us feeling inadequate and like failures. Even worse, we may also start seeing our children through this deficit-based lens.
But what if we empowered ourselves to change our mindset?
What if…
Transform Your Child’s School Year with a Strength-Based Approach
Are you ready to transform your neurodivergent child’s school year and set them on a path to success? A strength-based approach can do just that. Instead of focusing on challenges, this method shifts attention to your child’s unique talents and strengths, empowering them to thrive academically and socially.
This article dives into the science behind why focusing on strengths can improve your child’s mental health and academic performance. Learn actionable steps to implement this approach and discover how it will positively change your family’s outlook on education and personal growth.
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….
How To Make This New Year Your Child’s Best Ever!
Real life can be really hard and raising a neurodivergent child certainly presents no shortage of challenges.
While our minds can often shift to the negative, it's important that we make a conscious effort to look for the positive. This doesn't always come easy and might take real work for you to get the hang of it, but it's worth it!
Just as you would want with your kids, our goal as adults is to aim to be strength-based and talent-focused as possible.
As we pivot into the New Year, this is an important time…
How A Strength-Based School Year Will Change Your Child’s Life!
As the school year begins, it can be tempting to look back at the past year and only focus on the trials, tribulations, and turmoil.
Real life can be really hard and raising a neurodivergent child certainly presents no shortage of challenges.
While our minds can often shift to the negative, it's important that we make a conscious effort to look for the positive. This doesn't always come easy and might take real work for you to get the hang of it, but it's worth it!
Just as you would want with your kids, our goal as adults is to aim to be strength-based and talent-focused as possible.
Welcome to Our Home- Open House
Find out why YSA is a home to so many twice-exceptional students. Learn about our Open House and how it provides access to our mentors and courses in a new way.
Creating a Climate of Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back after adversity, and let’s face it, we have all faced some adversity lately. Teaching children resilience is a hot topic right now as we are all learning to navigate a post-pandemic world. The trouble is that we often go about this in a less-than-ideal way.
When we talk about children and resilience, the focus tends to be on what parents and teachers can do to “build” this skill in children. Instead of the traditional approach, maybe the question is not so much how to help children build resilience, but are we creating the right climate in which it can grow?
The Last 2 Miles: Finishing The Year Strong & Heading Into Summer Even Stronger 💪
This year has been a marathon, and we are now 2 miles from the finish. Some folks will say this is the easiest part because you can see the finish line, hear the crowds, and your adrenaline can kick in to carry you through the end.
Some will say that this is the hardest…
This school year has been a marathon. You and your child are almost to the end. Finish strong with whatever energy you both have left by following a few tips:
Help your child take stock of…
Comparison- The Thief Of Joy
My mom always told me that “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It was right up there with, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?” Both turned into maxims that I still follow… at least most of the time. It’s hard not to compare your child when the world seems so set on gauging growth and success as some sort of delta between where you are to where “normal” is. From the first moment a child enters into your life, there are growth charts and development metrics.
Alternative Education Paths: Removing Barriers to Learning for 2e children
I invite you to see a different way to approach education – one that is passion-driven rather than proscriptive, one that is interest-led rather than top-down, one that caters to the unique learning strengths and challenges of EVERY SINGLE CHILD rather than a cookie cutter education that eschews anyone who doesn’t fit the mold.
I know. I am asking you to depart from culturally entrenched ideas of what school has been for a century. Instead, I want you to embrace what learning CAN be.
A Strength-Based New Year!
As 2022 closes out and 2023 begins, it can be tempting to look back at the past year and only focus on the trials, tribulations, and turmoil.
Real life can be really hard and raising a neurodivergent child certainly presents no shortage of challenges.
While our minds can often shift to the negative, it's important that we make a conscious effort to look for the positive. This doesn't always come easy and might take real work for you to get the hang of it, but it's worth it!
Illuminating Interview- Dr. Joseph Renzulli Pt 2
“‘they find out what I can’t do, don’t want to do, and don’t like to do, and they spend the rest of the year beating me to death with it’” - former twice-exceptional student of Dr. Joseph Renzulli.
This was a moment in which Dr. Renzulli made a decision that would define his career: he committed his life’s work to find out what students:
✅ can do
✅ want to do
✅ like to do
and build authentic, interest-based learning experiences around the students, rather than the other way around.
Illuminating Interviews- Dr. Joseph Renzulli
After the launch of Sputnik in 1957, a young Dr. Renzulli, a then middle school science teacher, was put in charge of the gifted science program at his school. He was given students with 130+ IQs. The plot thickened when he snuck some quirky students in who he knew were just as bright, but were not on that list.
This led Dr. Renzulli to a major aha moment!
He realized that there were these 3 Key Factors that contributed to the students who were not on the original list of highly gifted students to do as well, if not better, than the students with the 130+ IQs!
Developing Super Strengths, Not Super Deficits!
All too often our brilliant students are defined by what they don't do well... This continues to baffle me.
Imagine judging a dolphin for its inability to walk on land or a giraffe for not being able to dive deep into the water. It seems so blatantly obvious here, but we do this to our students all the time. We set expectations and don’t take time to evaluate their strengths, interests, or talents.
We know darn well that when our students are immersed in their interest areas and their strengths are supported and developed, there is truly no limit to what they can accomplish.
Look no further than this website that our eight-year-old students made.
Illuminating Interviews- Coleman Sokol
Do you grant your child enough room to make mistakes?
This is an important question posed by my most recent guest on the Illuminating Interviews series, Coleman Sokol.
Coleman is a twice-exceptional senior in college who once wondered if he would make it through high school. He's now preparing to graduate from college with a PERFECT 4.0 GPA! Talk about a success story!
Illuminating Interviews- Elinor Shapiro
In this Illuminating Interview, Elinor consoles parents who might be worried about their child’s ability to venture out and succeed beyond school by offering some unconventional wisdom.
Check out this short clip of the hour-long interview in which Elinor paints a vivid picture for us of how she’s found success because of her asynchronies.
Illuminating Interviews- Cindy Hansen
You know when you ask the twice-exceptional kiddo in your life to do something until you're blue in the face and it still doesn't get done? It can be infuriating, right?
If you're nodding along right now, you can't miss the latest Illuminating Interview with soon-to-be-Dr. Cindy Hansen.
Illuminating Interviews- Dr. Rick Olenchak
Parenting 2e kids is tough. Really tough! It often seems like the whole world only sees challenge areas. Sadly, we live in a society that identifies and diagnoses deficits and prescribes “solutions” based on what kids struggle with…
Tune in to this Illuminating Interview with Dr. Olenchak to discover how to be a part of the changing wave of positive, strength-based, talent-focused education.
Rewrite the narrative and discover how to diagnose strengths and prescribe strength-based learning.
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