Gifted and Distractible

Understanding, Supporting, and Advocating for Your Twice Exceptional Child

By: Julie F. Skolnick

Narrated by: Julie F. Skolnick

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A practical, research-based guide that demystifies giftedness and learning differences in order to help “twice exceptional” children thrive.

Does your child exhibit giftedness and behavioral issues like meltdowns, power struggles, and difficulty relating to their peers? Are they out-of-the-box thinkers requiring different teaching and learning methods? It’s a widely held misconception that intellectual ability and social and emotional success go hand in hand. In fact, “twice exceptional” kids—those who are gifted and have simultaneous learning differences like ADHD, Autism, or dyslexia—are often misunderstood by parents, teachers, and themselves.

This much-needed and empowering guide reveals the unique challenges these remarkable kids face, and offers strength-based, hands-on strategies for understanding, supporting, and advocating for twice exceptional kids. In a world that labels them lazy, scattered, attention-seeking, and a problem that can’t be solved, these tools will help you reimagine the world through your child’s unique perspective—so you can help them thrive.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of charts and worksheets from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Julie F. Skolnick (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Julie Skolnick’s compassionate and practical guide demystifies the complexities of both giftedness and learning differences, and shows both parents and professionals how to support twice exceptional kids to help them self-actualize.”—Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, host of The Psychology Podcast and author of Transcend

"What a gift this book is to the family with a curious, clever, creative, and oh, so challenging 2e child! Julie Skolnick brilliantly guides parents (and anyone else listening) to understand 2e kids deeply, to employ hundreds of calming and compassionate strategies, and to advocate for gifted and distractible individuals, at home, at school, and out in the world.”—Carol Stock Kranowitz, author of The Out-of-Sync Child

“A wonderful guide to twice exceptional/2e children and adults. Bright and disabled children are often misunderstood. Their intellectual gifts often mask their weaknesses. Their disabilities can present obstacles to their cognitive promise. Such uneven developmental profiles often lead to undernourishment of strengths and underestimation of impairment. In this comprehensive review, Skolnick shines a light on this complexity. This gem of a book will go a long way toward helping parents and children achieve, as Skolnick suggests, both understanding and calm. As a developmental pediatrician I give this book my strongest recommendation.”—Dan Shapiro, MD, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and creator of ParentChildJourney.com

It tells everything about my child.

The strategies work magically for my child. The case studies are profound and easy to understand.

For me

I listened to this to better understand myself as an adult. It was very enlightening. I wish my mom read this book when I was a child

Knowledge with love

Truly help me understand how to understand my 2e child. Now I know what can help and what may cause harm.

Must Read for Parents/Caregivers

I heard about this author after hearing Julie on a podcast and was blown away by the empathy and understanding she has for kids who are different. After recently becoming a caregiver to a 2e kiddo, this book has opened my eyes and taught me so many strategies for navigating this world of parenting. This book provides practical tips that you can apply to communicating with your child different than many other parenting books. I highly recommend if you are struggling and traditional ways aren’t working.

Practical and Helpful

This book helped me better understand my 2e kiddo’s behavior and gave concrete, practical and helpful strategies to mitigate it.