Barry Gelston, Ed.D.

Parenting Between the Lines: Adaptive Connection in Twice-Exceptional Families

What does it mean to parent a twice-exceptional child in a world that doesn't see the full picture? In this in-depth conversation, GHF President Emeritus, Dr. Barry B. Gelston shares insights from his ongoing qualitative research into the lived experiences of 2e families. Expanding on his previous work about how teachers build adaptive connections with neurodivergent students, Dr. Gelston now explores how parents engage in a parallel process—making nuanced, flexible, and deeply personal decisions to meet their children’s evolving needs. Through interviews with parents of gifted and neurodivergent learners, Barry highlights emerging themes like gifted privilege, distal parenting, and values-centered resistance—offering a fresh framework for understanding how families both respond to and shape their children's learning journeys. This is not a how-to session, but a why-we-do—it’s a chance to reflect on the quiet brilliance of parenting between the lines.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the concept of adaptive connection and how it applies to parenting twice-exceptional children.

• Recognize patterns of values-centered decision-making that distinguish 2e parenting from mainstream parenting models.

• Identify the role of gifted privilege in shaping access to resources, flexibility, and long-view educational planning.

• Reflect on their own parenting practices through the lens of mutual adaptation and distal support.

• Reframe common parenting challenges as opportunities to build deeper relational resilience within the family system.

Barry B. Gelston, Ed.D., is an educator, researcher, and advocate for neurodivergent and twice-exceptional (2e) learners. He is the former President and "re-founder" of Gifted Homeschoolers Forum (GHF), where he helped guide its transition into a modern platform for gifted and 2e education. With a doctorate in education and decades of experience in progressive, student-centered teaching, Dr. Gelston is known for his work on personalized learning, math education, and strengths-based approaches to neurodiversity.

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