A Fresh Start After the Holidays: Supporting Gifted and 2e Families as the New Year Unfolds

By Dr. Kali Fedor and Dr. Reby Parsley, Parent, Family & Community Network Chair and Chair-Elect

The start of a new calendar year is often framed as a “fresh beginning”, a chance to reset, refocus, and ease into what comes next. For families of gifted and twice-exceptional (2e) children, however, January can feel less like a clean slate and more like a jolt back into reality. After the sensory overload, disrupted routines, heightened emotions, and social demands of the holiday season, returning to a “normal” school schedule can be bumpy for everyone involved.

Gifted and 2e children may struggle with the abrupt shift from flexible days over the break back to the rigid school expectations. Emotional intensity, sleep disruptions, executive functioning challenges, and heightened anxiety can all surface during this return to the classroom and busy calendar schedules start again. Parents, too, may feel exhausted, caught between relief that routines are back and concern about how their child will readjust.

So, what’s the good news amidst the chaos of returning to school? We can choose as parents to focus on January to be not about perfection or immediate productivity. Instead, we can help ourselves and our child(ren) move into a season, as my GPS tells me when I take a wrong turn, “I am recalculating”. We can choose to celebrate this new year as the chance to observe, reconnect, and intentionally prepare for what lies ahead. To help you with these family conversations, we have created some ideas for you on re-establishing routines and looking ahead without becoming overwhelmed. 

Re-Establishing Routines with Compassion

When preparing to discuss re-establishing routines with your child(ren) remember, even though we know the “why” behind the importance of routines, for our child(ren) it can be seen as just one more expectation they need to achieve in the day. So, consider the following before you start the conversation with your child(ren):

1. How do predictable routines help support your child’s regulation and executive functioning?
2. Why is it important for you to remain flexible and provide encouraging scaffolding support during transitions?
3. How can you “let go” of the back to normal expectations and embrace possibly new established routines?

After you have done your own personal pre-planning, now it is time to guide the conversation. Here are some possible discussion topics to guide your family through to help with the re-establishment of the family routine(s) in 2026. 

1. Start with some of the easier “everyday items” such as sleep times/routines, meals, downtime before academic tasks each day.
2. Creating visual schedules or shared calendars as a family to reduce the cognitive load on any one person. Reminders are helpful for everyone.
3. Discuss and share examples of times when someone experienced emotional dysregulation after the break. We want to create a safe, shared environment, where we can “normalize” emotional dysregulation. It may look, sound, or feel different, but it happens to everyone from time to time. 

Looking Ahead to Spring Without Overwhelm

 As winter eventually gives way to spring, many families begin preparing for upcoming school events such as field trips, state testing, field days, enrichment opportunities, academic competitions, and often, important meetings with teachers or support teams at school. All these events can be filled with fun and laughter, but for our gifted and 2e kids, and their families, these events can also be filled with anxiety and stress. Here are some key ideas to consider, which may help lessen the anxiety or stress for you and your child(ren).

1. How can planning ahead be a support and not a stressor?
1. For example, if you have a meeting with the school coming up, start a list of questions you (and perhaps your child) have about their current support(s). Do you have examples you can share for when a particular support was helpful? Do you have examples of situations which have occurred at home because your child did not receive appropriate support(s) at school? Write them all down as you think of them over time. This way you will be prepared and ready to advocate for your child’s needs.
2. Investigate ways to help your child(ren) “preview” upcoming changes or expectations.
1. For example, reviewing sensory or social expectations your child might experience during an upcoming field trip. This discussion and visualization can help your child express their own concerns and start to strategize solutions, if these situations should occur. Remember the more strategies we have the better!
3. How can we harness strengths and interests to frame our conversations about challenges?

Advocacy as an Ongoing, Strength-Based Process

Advocacy for gifted and 2e learners is most effective when it is grounded in a strength-based approach to education. Recognizing ability, potential, and interests alongside areas of need. Rather than focusing solely on what a child struggles with, strength-based advocacy emphasizes who the child is, how they learn best, and the conditions under which they thrive. 

As spring approaches, many families begin preparing for meetings with teachers. These conversations can feel daunting, especially if past experiences have not been positive. Reframing advocacy as collaboration can shift both tone and outcomes. Strength-based advocacy invites families and teachers to work together to answer these questions:

1. What are the student’s strengths, interests, and passions?
2. How do these strengths support engagement, motivation, and resilience?
3. What barriers may be interfering with access to learning, and how can supports be created to build on the child’s current abilities?

For gifted and 2e learners, this approach is especially important. A child may demonstrate advanced reasoning, creativity, or leadership while at the same time need support with executive function, emotional regulation, or sensory processing. Name both, without allowing challenges to overshadow strengths, creates a more accurate and humane picture of the learner.

Families can also support advocacy by gradually helping children understand and speak about their own needs. Over time, students who recognize their strengths and learning profiles are better equipped to participate in self-advocacy, which is an essential life-long skill for success. 

Fresh Starts, Forward Motion, and Shared Advocacy

The transition to the new year offers families a meaningful opportunity to pause, reflect, and realign. Fresh starts do not require radical changes or immediate solutions. Instead, they are built through small, intentional steps. As calendars begin to fill-up, families are reminded that advocacy is not about pushing harder, it is about partnering more effectively. No family should navigate this journey alone. That’s why our PFC started the Sip ‘n’ Speak sessions. 

Speaking of our Sip ‘n’ Speak sessions, our next one is scheduled for February 23rd, starting at 6:30pm (EST) through Zoom. Our topic for discussion is titled Advocating for your Child Using a Strength-Based Approach. We will be expanding on some of the items within this blog but are hoping you join us and share some of your own thoughts and stories. To register, click here.

The ongoing work of our Network and NAGC remains committed to supporting families as they advocate, adapt, and look ahead. As this season unfolds, may the new year serve not as a source of pressure, but as an invitation, to begin again, together, with clarity, confidence, and hope. We hope to see you soon during one of our Sip ‘n’ Speak or Webinar event this year!