Dr. Dan welcomes colleague and friend Debbie Steinberg Kuntz to today’s episode to discuss our bright and quirky kids.  Debbie is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of Bright and Quirky’s mission statement is powerful:  Ease the struggle for bright and quirky kids and parents, help them self-actualize with the help of experts in the fields of mental health and education, and inspire the hope that new ideas and possibilities bring.

When Debbie started her family counseling practice a decade ago, she had no idea the area of 2e (twice-exceptional) would be her specialty. She credits her sons, now teenagers, and their unique strengths and challenges as the inspiration for her life’s work.

Early in her parenting journey, Debbie learned that her own sons were ‘2e’ or ‘twice exceptional,’ meaning they are smart and also have unique brain wiring that makes accessing those smarts at times challenging.  As she researched and found solutions for them, she started to share the learning with families in her private practice near Seattle. These kids are very bright and struggle with learning, executive function, social, emotional and/or behavioral challenges. Some have diagnoses such as ADHD, autism/Aspergers, anxiety, depression and learning disabilities like dyslexia.

In the winter of 2018, Debbie decided to try an experiment and run a 2e parenting program online. Today the Bright & Quirky Child Online Summit, attracting over 15,000 people from 95 countries featuring World-class psychologists, educators, and child development experts who share tools and insights to help bright & quirky kids thrive.  In fact, Dr. Dan is one of the featured speakers for the third annual online summit which is free if you register (click here to register).  Listeners can go to this link: https://hub.brightandquirky.com/~access/a7c5262f/

Today Debbie works with hundreds of bright-but-busy parents who work for Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Starbucks, to have a happy home life and equip their kids with the habits to succeed. Since her private practice is typically full, she founded Positive Impact Family to help even more parents transform their family to become more happy, positive, and cooperative, and make a positive impact in the world.

Today’s show covers many topics and features registration information about the 2020 Bright and Quirky Summit as well as the “Idea Lab” learning community, online resources and parenting tools to help navigate:

How to meet your uniquely wired child's needs by providing the right supports

What it means to be a self-scientist

How to teach kids, educators, others to lead with strengths

Flipping the script on how we see our 2e kids

And Debbie’s Parent Footprint moment advice on the importance of being present and just showing up for our kids

For more information on Debbie’s work, the summit and more visit:

https://brightandquirky.com/summit-2020/  and https://brightandquirky.com

Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®.

Parent Footprint podcast listeners can get a discount from Wild Foods because they align with Parent Footprint’s mission to make the world a better place one family at a time.  Use FOOTPRINT12 and this link http://wildfoods.co/?aff=325 for 12% off your order.