Experiences of twice-exceptional Russophone families displaced to the United States: An exploratory study

Considering the current political climate, the researcher’s personal investment in the topic, and scarcity of prior investigations into the lived experiences of the under-researched but still growing population of Russophone families displaced to the United States, the present study aimed to address this gap. It used an exploratory research design that employed purposive, convenience, snowball sampling to collect data through an anonymous online survey. Using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and phenomenological and general inductive approach guided by thematic analysis with recursive coding for qualitative data, it investigated the extent of awareness of the terms neurodiversity, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, and learning differences among 62 Russophone family units, and the experiences of 26 twice-exceptional families within the same sample. The major findings of the study included an account of the diversity of challenges experienced by families due to the lack of resources, specialists, and assessors fluent in Russian; lack of affordable culturally sustaining programs; and limited support and training on giftedness and twice-exceptionality provided to parents and educators. Based upon these findings, suggestions for improving these families’ support and wellbeing are provided.