Explore • Belong • Thrive
Explore • Belong • Thrive
Our Twice-exceptional (2E) students are children who are extraordinary, intellectual, creative, and demonstrate enormous potential in one or more areas. At the same time they are challenged by academic, attentional and social deficiencies. They are often shunned or bullied because of their intellectual curiosity and social quirkiness and don’t fit in a typical classroom setting.
There is no single profile of a twice-exceptional child because the nature and causes of twice-exceptionality are so diverse. These are complex children with varying degrees of needs that are ever changing. Our strength-based program offers individualized instruction in small class sizes to meet their intellectual, learning, and social-emotional needs.
For most E2 Academy students, early academic successes were followed by extreme challenges. As a result, students typically enter E2 Academy with lower grades that do not accurately reflect their potential. Many find typical school settings rigid in universal way of teaching. It is common for behavioural issues to arise along with poor self-esteem, depression, and anxiety.
Our students are intense and have a highly developed sense of curiosity in specific passions and interests. They question and seek fact-based answers rather than philosophies. They have active imaginations that allow for an ability to think outside the box. We see an increase in creative problem solving skills when given the opportunity to follow their curiosities.
You’ll often find 2E individuals have an offbeat sense of humor and an encyclopedic knowledge in their fields of interest. When they are passionate about something, they can remember large amounts of information and have an advanced use of language. As a group, our 2E students are significantly different from both learning disabled and gifted children. Without proper understanding and regular interventions, their tremendous strengths can go unrecognized and undeveloped.
Students develop personal relationships with teachers and our academic team has the ability to engage students with multiple interests and talents. In addition, E2 Academy students thrive on developmentally appropriate organizational guidance and social support while developing strong, supportive relationships with peers and adults.
E2 Academy educates an underserved population of gifted students with other diagnoses and/or differences. It is our passion and dedication to work with educators, other professionals and families in advancing the cause of twice-exceptional education.
What are the E2 Academy requirements?
To better understand the student’s profile, we ask for psycho-educational testing or input from doctors, therapists, their instructional team and parents. Formal testing will assist in discovering your child’s specific “E2 profile”. We are DSEPS (Designated Special Education Private School) and thus, are only able to accept students with a diagnosis of a mild, moderate, or severe disability.
It is not unusual to see tremendous strengths and glaring deficiencies in the same child. The majority of our students have traditional full scale WISC validation as “gifted”. However, some will have a much more “asynchronous development” profile. Each student is looked at individually and we value parent, teacher and specialist input as much as we do formal testing.
We request information from all available sources to identify each applicant’s learning profile. Much of what we are looking for in a student cannot be quantified, therefore every possible effort is made to know, understand and assess each applicant individually as a whole person. The key to both E2 Academy’s success and the success of our students is our ability to select applicants who will be best served by us and for who we are the best fit.
E2 Academy is not able to serve students who have cognitive deficits or a primary diagnosis of a severe behaviour disorder. In addition, E2 is unable to meet the needs of students who require support with personal hygiene or diapering.
Come and discover what E2 Academy is all about. Call 780.438.0824 or email info@e2academy.com for more information.