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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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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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Happy Mother’s Day To The Women Who Do It All!
Moms, never underestimate your power! As far as I can tell, there is no one more powerful in this world than you!
You are the courageous few who:
go up against the system and fight for accommodations
see strengths in your child when the rest of the world seems to see shortcomings
entrench yourselves in learning about neurodiversity and taking creative approaches with your kiddo
invest in programs that offer your child what you know is right
give so much by being a working professional and supporting your child full-time OR putting your career on pause to support your child full time
Building Strength-Based IEPs/504s
Children are amazing!
They are funny, clever, and brave. They can remind us of all of the very best things about this world, and they are so much more than any IEP, 504, assessment, report, or document could ever say. They are more than a moment in their educational career, and they deserve to be seen as the complex, unique beings that they are.
So here are a few tips for helping the IEP/504 team develop a strength-based approach to your child’s educational needs.
Top IEP & 504 Tips for Twice-Exceptional Families
Ah, spring.
A time of new beginnings: Flowers are blooming; eggs are hatching; and American parents are navigating the ins and outs of IEPs/504s at the end of a school term.
This time of year usually brings with it a few specific questions around IEPs and 504s, so I wanted to take a moment and answer a few of the most commonly asked questions.
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.
![The Kids Are Alright – At least, They Will Be [An Open Letter]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f31e3d9fd368d05843cb4b3/1679932919804-2A1MGFYKL2H3BPCO49TN/You%27re+ok.jpg)
The Kids Are Alright – At least, They Will Be [An Open Letter]
Hey friend,
How are you? Are you doing alright?
I’m here to tell you that you are doing a great job. I know you are exhausted looking at all the information and reading everything you can. It makes a difference. We can only ever do the best we can with the information we have at the time
Creating Learning Plans That Work: The 3 KEY Ingredients
Odds are, you are looking for a way to better align learning with your child.
Perhaps you’ve caught yourself fantasizing about learning that excites your child that you can feel good about.
You may be looking to supplement or create a learning plan for your child. Maybe you have been thinking about homeschooling for a while now.
Wherever you are on your journey, you may not know exactly where to start...
I'm here to tell you that that’s ok!
There are many paths to provide interest-led learning for your child, and not all of them are homeschool-focused.
To create a workable learning plan, one that both you and your child will like, you need to keep three things in mind. I call these the 3 KEY Ingredients. These are...
Every Hero Story Has This…
In every Hero Story there is always a guide. There is always a mentor who helps the hero come into themselves and do what they could not do themselves. Our hero is already extraordinary, but they often don't see their own powers...
More often than not, it's not even clear that our hero is a true hero until the mentor sets them on their journey of rebirth and growth.
Heroes become heroes because…
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.
The Twice-exceptional Elephant: What 2e Is, and Most Importantly, What It Isn’t.
What exactly does 2e mean? How do you know your child is 2e? Who gets to define what 2e is, and maybe more importantly, what it isn’t? The Twice-exceptional Elephant analogy can help define what 2e is, and maybe more Importantly, what it isn’t.
I often joke that I will retire the day that when I tell people my purpose in this world is serving “twice-exceptional students,” they will say “nice!” instead of “what’s that mean?” While the term 2e, or twice-exceptional, has been around for a while as a concept, the terms are fairly new in the fields of psychology and education. If you haven’t heard it, don’t worry, you're not alone. It just means there’s still lots of work to do!
Put On Your Mask: Recovering From The Dysregulation of Vacation
Phew. You made it. Winter break is over. I hope you are nice and relaxed and ready for the year ahead.
But… maybe you aren’t. That’s ok too. Here’s the thing though: You and your family don’t have to stay feeling stuck and overwhelmed after a holiday or vacation. To get your family back on track, you need to focus on yourself first. Think of it like an airplane…
Kicking-Off 2023 With Strengths: Week-1 In Our Virtual Village
By today, Friday, I have received 76 emails from families just like yours, who all had a story to tell about the magic of this week.
Each email detailed a special moment, or two, that really made this week special. Just like each student who is a member of our Virtual Village, each story was so different. What made classes special for one child was worlds apart from another. Across most of the messages, 2 clear trends emerged…
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!
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:
Illuminating Interviews- Dr. Lamb
I always say Siobhan may be the important person that you don’t yet know.
Dr. Siobhan Lamb is hands-down one of the most thought-provoking individuals that I have the pleasure of knowing in the fields of cognitive diversity and education.
Go grab your notebook and be prepared to be inspired as we explore:
-Recommendations for supporting neurodiverse kiddos
-Perspectives that expand our collective understanding of neurodiversity
-Support from someone who knows what it is to live with a dual diagnosis
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.
Is Your Neuodivergent Student College Ready? Featuring: Dr. Eric Endlich
Wondering if your neurodivergent/twice-exceptional kiddo is ready for college? You’re not alone! There is a lot of confusing information out there and it can make supporting our already complex kiddos an even more difficult task…
While all of our students are so unique, there are general guidelines that can be really helpful to understand.
Don't miss this value-packed highlight from our amazing webinar with special guest Dr. Eric Endlich.
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!
3 Proven Strategies To Help Your 2e Kiddo Make Friends, NOW!
It's not easy having a bright kiddo who you know is so special, but who struggles to make friends. You know they have so much to offer others, if they could only break through.
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