Twice Exceptional (A Devoted Father, His Nonspeaking Autistic Son, and the Silent Triumph That Took Him to MIT)

A father’s account, and a son’s own words. The moving memoir of a single father whose son was presumed intellectually disabled, but became the first nonspeaking autistic person admitted to MIT—called “truthful, joyful, unflinching, and kind” (David Mitchell) and “required reading for teachers [and] parents” (Temple Grandin).

Sumit Dhanda’s son Viraj was two when he was diagnosed with severe autism and apraxia. Therapists and doctors delivered the same message: Viraj was intellectually disabled. He would never speak. Sumit, a single father, relinquished a thriving career on Wall Street to focus on his son’s needs. Never once did he doubt the experts.

Then, one morning when Viraj was almost thirteen, a startling truth emerged: his intelligence had been there all along—expansive, concealed, waiting to be discovered.

Twice Exceptional is the story of a father who refused to settle for less for his son, and a boy who defied his doubters. As Sumit would soon find, Viraj had been aware of the world around him all along—he had simply lacked the means to engage with it. His silence had obscured talents for math, science, and self-expression.

These revelations brought with them an even more vexing challenge: How could Sumit get the world to see—and believe—what he saw?

Told in Sumit’s words alongside Viraj’s own writing, Twice Exceptional is a testament to the bond between a father and his son. A profoundly affecting story of love, sacrifice, and achievement against the odds, it urges readers to presume competence. To do so could be to open the door to minds waiting to reveal their gifts.