By Dr Kate Aster (Burton)
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May 29, 2025
By Dr Kate Aster (Burton) Gifted Awareness Week always makes me reflect on the long road we’ve travelled. It’s been a 22-year journey for me, both personally and professionally, shaped entirely by my child’s experience of being twice-exceptional in a world that didn’t know what to make of them. Like so many 2e kids, mine didn’t present the way schools expected. Yes, they were gifted. That part was obvious. But they were also anxious, highly sensitive, perfectionistic, and completely disconnected from their peers. In a classroom surrounded by same-age students and held to grade-level expectations, they were bored, overwhelmed, and starting to shut down. At home, we watched their spark dim. And yet, when I tried to advocate, not only as a parent but also as a PhD candidate specialising in giftedness at the time, no-one would listen. Not really. Every conversation felt like a dead end. Every meeting felt like it was designed to 'contain' rather than support. I was advocating relentlessly, but it was exhausting and isolating. The system just wasn’t built to respond. Then one teacher changed everything. We were lucky. Really lucky. We had all but given up. We were home schooling, when a chance phone call I made while looking for a mentor, resulted in finding someone who saw our child clearly and who was brave enough to do something about it. This teacher didn’t wait for permission. They advocated internally, organised the right assessments, and helped facilitate radical acceleration into a gifted and talented program. That decision shifted everything. Finally, our child was with peers who thought more similarly to them. They were more intellectually engaged. They received more challenging work. They entered competitions. And that challenge helped reduce their perfectionism, while the social connection improved their mental health - immeasurably. They began to feel seen and safe, and their confidence grew. They went on to graduate high school three years early - with distinction. They completed university three years early, and then received First Class Honours. Not because we pushed them, but because they were finally allowed to work in a way that suited their developmental readiness. They joined clubs, sat on committees, found their voice. All of these things that once felt completely out of reach when they were stuck at grade level and drowning emotionally. In primary school, the focus was on surviving the day. On keeping our child in one piece. This experience didn’t just change their life. It changed mine too. At the time, I wasn’t yet working in mental health. I was just desperately trying to get the system to see my child. The trauma of that experience became the catalyst for everything that followed. I completed a PhD, began publishing in the areas of giftedness and neurodiversity, and eventually became the Clinical Director of a specialist clinic supporting these children and their families. I also founded Gifted WA, nearly ten years ago now, because I didn’t want other families to go through what we did. I wanted to build a community. I wanted parents to be equipped to advocate effectively. And I wanted educators and professionals to truly understand the complexity and potential of these children. But here’s the thing: we should never have had to fight that hard. In Western Australia, we do technically have a Gifted and Talented in Public Schools Policy, but it is primarily made up of guidelines. Implementation varies widely across schools. The outcome often comes down to whether a particular teacher is willing to listen, to learn, and to act. This is why this year’s Gifted Awareness Week theme, “From Policy to Practice”, matters so much. Because even when a policy exists, if it is optional or inconsistently applied, it fails to protect the very students it’s meant to support, and families will continue to burn out trying to secure the most basic accommodations. What happened for my child should not be the exception. It should be the standard. When we get it right, when teachers and parents and professionals come together with shared understanding and a willingness to act, these students don’t just survive. They thrive. And it’s time we made that the norm. About the Author: Dr Kate Aster is the Clinical Director of Alchemy Therapy and founder of Gifted WA and My Neurodivergent Child. With almost 20 years of research experience and a decade working as a mental health professional, Kate combines clinical expertise with lived experience. She is dedicated to advocating for systemic change in gifted education and helping families and professionals meet the complex needs of twice-exceptional children.
