Dr. Austina De Bonte

Quirky? Asynchronous? Sensitive? Opinionated? Uncovering Hidden 2e in Our Kids

There’s growing evidence that many gifted students are actually twice exceptional (2e) with co-occurring learning differences, processing challenges, or neurodiversity. Parents sometimes overlook legitimate challenges and instead call our kids quirky, asynchronous, sensitive, or opinionated. Kids’ amazing ability to compensate and mask often delays recognition of their support needs. However, providing early intervention and supports could prevent many long-term challenges, ranging from academic underachievement to social, emotional, and psychological impacts. Learn about the most commonly overlooked causes of 2e and what clues to look for - so that you can identify the supports your kids will need to thrive.

Dr. Austina De Bonte is President of WA Coalition for Gifted Education, Past President of NW Gifted Child Association, Advisor to The G Word documentary, and a consultant at Smart is not Easy. She specializes in helping families get to the root cause(s) of their kids’ twice exceptional challenges. She also works with school district teams to improve equitable identification and service models for advanced school programs. Austina is a certified SENG Model Parent Group facilitator. 

She received the NAGC Carolyn Callahan Doctoral Student Award (2023), People to Watch by Variations 2e (2020), WAETAG Advocacy Award (2019), and three PTA Outstanding Advocate awards. She has a Masters degree from MIT (1998), and an Ed.D. from Bridges Graduate School (2024), where her dissertation was titled “Beyond Universal Screening: Practices and Attitudes that Support Equity in an Accelerated Elementary Program.