Dr. Orla Dunne

So actually, you know, the cohort of CTYI has changed quite a lot in the last 30 years that we've been running.

And now across our primary and secondary school programmes, about 25% of our students would be twice exceptional.

It's not a surprise now because, you know, internationally we're seeing a lot of really good research out there about the increase in twice exceptional young people.

And of course, we know that generally, you know, things like autism, ADHD are being, you know, recognised a lot more and we're seeing more diagnoses of that, more children are being recommended for that.

So I think it's just a natural fit that now they're coming to us.

And then the other thing I would say is that

I think people are just becoming a bit more aware of CTYI, which is great as well.

No.

And, you know, we do still see a little bit of that now because, you know, sometimes if you have an additional education need, that might actually be masking your really strong abilities in something.

And what we're often seeing in schools and a piece of research that we have done recently on parents' perceptions of education.

the support services that their children were receiving in school, is that there can often be this deficit-based mindset.

So where we're very focused on the additional education need.

And of course, that's important.

There's a lot of challenges and resources that a child might need.

But we're not seeing enough focus on their strengths.

And they're certainly not getting from our research more support in schools for their actual talents and strengths.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's certainly being overlooked.

And, you know, like if you think about how it might feel to be a child in a classroom where you really want to be, you know, stretched, you're really interested in, say, maths and you know that you could be doing maths at, you know, maybe two levels above what you're doing in primary school.

But the extra services you're getting are, you know, for a different part of your education.