Bridges Academy educates a diverse group of gifted students
with a range of strengths, interests, and learning differences.
We refer to these students as twice-exceptional or 2e.
Our program is strength-based, personalized, and student centered.
with a range of strengths, interests, and learning differences.
We refer to these students as twice-exceptional or 2e.
Our program is strength-based, personalized, and student centered.
Do You Recognize These Twice Exceptional (2E) Kids?
Meet KevinKevin is 8 years old and has been an expert builder for years. His latest accomplishment was his original design of a cruise ship with a swimming pool on each of the three decks, a tennis court and two smoke stacks. Kevin is very knowledgeable about space and aeronautics. But Kevin has few friends. He does not understand how to interact with others. Rule- bound and highly sequential, Kevin gets upset easily by changes and environmental stimuli. Although he is able to decode reading materials at 6th grade level, he has poor comprehension, especially with fictional materials.
Kevin’s learning profile is typical of gifted students with Asperger Syndrome. These students tend to be highly knowledgeable in topics of interest but narrowly focused. They have a quantitative impairment in social interaction. Many exhibit stereotyped or repetitive motor mannerisms and have a strong need for structure and routine. |
Meet BethBeth is a curious young middle school student and has many varied interests who demonstrates high levels of creativity in both her poetry and in drama classes. But she has great difficulty paying attention especially during lectures and discussions in both science and social studies. Her mind tends to wander when she already knows the content being taught. Homework assignments take her at least twice as long as most of her classmates. She rarely finishes assignments or tests in the allotted time. Interestingly, Beth has no attention issues in either her drama or in her writing class. She has had major roles in school productions and has had two of her poems published. Beth has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity.
Students with ADHD with or without hyperactivity tend to have difficulty focusing, sustaining attention and completing written work. They may exhibit physical restlessness or feelings of restlessness. They can be impulsive and have poor executive functioning skills. Because of attention issues, they have a difficult time processing and organizing information and find it hard to stay on track on assignments, especially if they are not interesting or novel. |
Meet Sarah
Sarah is a scientist. Her projects have won awards in science fair competitions. She is taking online college-level courses in physics. However, Sarah has great difficulty reading at grade level, spelling, and completing assignments in writing. She has been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities causing her great difficulty in tasks that require reading, writing, and note-taking. Sarah has specific learning disabilities in language arts.
Like students with ADHD, students with specific learning disabilities may also have poor executive functioning skills and lack the ability to manage their thinking and to work towards a specific goal. These difficulties stem from slow auditory and visual processing speed, poor eye-hand coordination, lack of organizational skills, and poor working memories. |
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The Bridges Multiple Perspectives Model points to critical variables necessary in understanding the whole child. Each variable must be understood independently and in connection to the whole. Our teachers, administrators, and support staff use this model to guide programming, curriculum design and differentiation to creatively solve complex questions as to how to bring the student, the educational environment, and family into productive alignment.
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