When people talk about giftedness, they often imagine advanced vocabulary, exceptional memory, or quick problem-solving. But giftedness doesn’t always come packaged neatly. It can coexist with traits that are less easily recognized or accommodated, especially when those traits point to a brain that works differently from typical frameworks.
Neurodivergence refers to natural variations in cognitive functioning, including diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and others. These are not deficits or problems, but different ways of processing, sensing, relating, and navigating the world. Often, challenges arise not from the traits themselves, but from environments that aren’t built to support them.
Giftedness and neurodivergence can and do overlap. In fact, being gifted can sometimes obscure neurodivergent traits, making them harder to identify. A child with advanced verbal skills may mask social confusion with precocious conversation. A high-achieving student might use perfectionism or humor to redirect attention from executive functioning struggles. Adults might develop professional personas so effective that few people ever notice the ongoing cognitive and emotional labor required to maintain them.
When giftedness and neurodivergence show up in the same person, they can mask one another, sometimes unintentionally. And without clear recognition, the support that’s needed often never arrives.
When Giftedness and Neurodivergence Overlap
The term twice exceptional (or 2e) refers to individuals who are both intellectually gifted and neurodivergent. These children often have advanced verbal or reasoning abilities while also experiencing cognitive, emotional, or sensory differences that impact how they learn, relate, and function in daily life. The traits tied to each side of that equation can create confusion for caregivers, educators, and even clinicians—especially when giftedness masks the need for support.
This becomes especially complex when you factor in race, gender, and access to resources. Girls and BIPOC children are less likely to be referred for neurodevelopmental evaluations and less frequently identified as gifted. Bias, cultural expectations, systemic racism, and the uneven distribution of school resources all shape which traits are noticed, how they’re interpreted, and what kinds of support are offered.
Understanding Masking as a Coping Strategy
A core reason twice exceptionality is often missed lies in a concept familiar to many neurodivergent people: masking. Masking refers to the practice of concealing, minimizing, or compensating for neurodivergent traits in order to fit in, meet expectations, or avoid being misunderstood. It can be conscious or automatic. A child might force themselves to make eye contact even when it feels uncomfortable, suppress stimming behaviors, or hide how disoriented they feel by a noisy classroom. Over time, masking becomes a survival strategy, but one that can be exhausting, confusing, and harmful to a developing sense of self.
In twice exceptional children, masking is often more subtle and effective. A gifted child may recognize social expectations more quickly, adapt more fluidly, or use language to redirect attention from areas of struggle. They might overcompensate with perfectionism or lean heavily on their strengths to cover for executive functioning challenges. On the surface, they may appear “fine”—even thriving—but the internal toll is often invisible.
The Risks of Going Unsupported
When twice exceptional children go unrecognized, the consequences can follow them well into adulthood. A disconnect between how they are perceived and what they actually need often leads to a long-term pattern of under-support, burnout, and internalized self-blame. Without a clear understanding of their neurotype—or access to environments that affirm it—many 2e individuals grow up feeling confused by their own inconsistency, believing that their struggles are personal failings rather than reflections of unmet needs.
One of the biggest risks of being unsupported is that early success can obscure emerging difficulties. A gifted child with ADHD, for example, may excel in structured grade school environments, especially if they receive positive reinforcement for their intellect. But as academic and life demands increase, the supports they once relied on may no longer be enough. By college or graduate school, executive functioning deficits often become harder to work around. Without accommodations, medication, or strategies tailored to their neurotype—like breaking tasks into smaller steps or using tools to support time management—burnout becomes likely.
And the stakes keep rising. Access to public education is guaranteed, but higher education is expensive. There’s no safety net for flunking out of a graduate program or losing a job due to performance struggles. An undiagnosed adult who is masking, self-managing, or constantly overexerting to compensate may face serious consequences: financial instability, professional derailment, or chronic mental health challenges. Even those who “succeed” externally may do so at a high emotional cost.
As adults, 2e individuals often carry lingering confusion about why certain things are so hard for them. Autistic adults may struggle in work environments that reward quick switching, constant multitasking, and social fluency. ADHDers are likely to have trouble completing tasks in a timely manner in work environments that lack variety or challenge. Without a clear understanding of their neurodivergence, they are less likely to advocate for accommodations, or even know what kinds of support would make a difference. Opportunities for early intervention, skill-building, and self-compassion are missed.
In essence, when giftedness masks neurodivergence, we lose the opportunity to support the whole person. And over time, the gap between potential and sustainability can become a source of pain, not pride.
The Role of Psychological Testing
Comprehensive psychological and educational testing can be a turning point. A well-structured evaluation goes beyond IQ or achievement scores, it looks at how a child processes information, regulates attention, manages emotions, and navigates the world socially. It considers not just what a child can do, but how they do it, and at what cost.
The cognitive testing process can unearth patterns that clarify a complex picture: why a student who aces spelling tests still can’t finish homework, why a child who seems confident melts down over minor transitions, why “gifted” doesn’t always mean “fine.” It also helps distinguish between overlapping traits. Is a student’s inattentiveness due to boredom, anxiety, or ADHD? Is social withdrawal a sign of gifted introspection or autistic burnout? Without formal assessment, these questions are hard to answer, and assumptions can easily miss the mark. The formal evaluation process provides clarity through testing while identifying academic challenges that may have been overlooked.
The goal of testing is not to label, but to illuminate. With the right insights, families and schools can make informed decisions about support and services. A 2e child might need extended time on tests, a more flexible classroom environment, sensory accommodations, or therapy that validates their unique experience. More importantly, they need to know that being gifted and being neurodivergent aren’t opposites, they’re just different aspects of who they are.
Diagnostic testing is also increasingly being used to assess adults who were missed or misidentified in childhood. As awareness grows around how neurodivergence presents beyond the traditional (and often biased) diagnostic lens, adults are seeking evaluations to better understand long-standing challenges. For many, the process offers not just clarity, but relief and a reframing of past experiences that allows for more self-compassion, appropriate support, and sustainable ways of working and living.
Supporting the Whole Person
Twice-exceptional individuals often spend years compensating for what the world doesn’t see. Their strengths obscure their needs, and their ability to adapt becomes both survival strategy and liability. What looks like capability may, in reality, be the result of exhaustion, internalized pressure, and the quiet toll of long-term masking.
Recognition isn’t just about naming traits, it’s about understanding patterns, context, and cost. Psychological testing offers a way to untangle what has been misread or missed entirely, especially for those whose identities have been shaped by gendered, racial, or cultural bias in diagnosis and support. It helps clarify not just what someone can do, but how they do it, and what it takes from them to keep going.
When giftedness and neurodivergence are understood as coexisting—and when accommodations are matched to actual needs—twice-exceptional individuals gain more than a label. They gain access to more accurate narratives, better tools, and a chance to build a life that doesn’t rely on compensating for misunderstanding.
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For additional resources and support for twice-exceptional individuals and their families, visit SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) at sengifted.org.