Hi! My name is Mae. I am 20 years old, and I have a lot of friends! Let me tell you about my friend Tommy Grass, who lives in my neighborhood.

Hi Tommy!

Hi Mae!

When I first met Tommy, I quickly noticed that he was different from me. In fact, he is very different from many other 11-year-olds!  

Tommy has something that the brain doctors call Twice Exceptional. This means that his brain works differently from most other kids, and he has different strengths and challenges from you and me.

Tommy is super-uper-duper smart! That is one of his strengths or exceptionalities. He is sooo smart, that he can understand my science homework better than me! And I am 9 years older than Tommy!

Once, while my family had Tommy and his mom over for dinner, Tommy talked about black holes in space, tidal forces, and the process of spaghettification. Only my dad, who has a science degree, could understand him.

Simply put, spaghettification occurs due to different gravitational forces in black holes.

Huh!?

Tommy, do you remember what I said 15 minutes ago?

No.... but I can tell you about my birthday....

While Tommy is super-uper-duper smart, he struggles with things that you and I may not struggle with. This is the second part of his Twice Exceptionality.

Tommy struggles with memory. He sometimes cannot recall what he said 15 minutes ago. But Tommy can remember all the details of his birthday party that happened several months ago!

Tommy also struggles with change. This can be dramatic change like switching houses or really tiny changes. If he left the room and I removed the table, he would panic when he returned.

What happened to the table!?

POOF!

Like you and me, Tommy can struggle making friends. But Tommy has a hard time playing with other 11-year-olds, because they struggle to understand him.

Do you like quantum physics too!?