Today with David McCullagh
Twice exceptional: when gifted children also have an advanced learning need
20 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What is the Centre for Talented Youth and its purpose?
Each year, around 6,000 students aged 6 to 17 take part in programmes that go far beyond the limits of the standard school curriculum. The Centre for Talented Youth in DCU offers courses for children with strong aptitude in one or more subjects.
Increasingly, that includes a growing cohort of twice exceptional students, those who are both gifted and have additional learning needs, raising important questions about how talent is identified, supported... and sometimes overlooked within the education system.
Joining me now for more on this is Dr Orla Dunn, Assistant Professor at DCU's School of Inclusive Education and Programme Manager at Centre for Talented Youth Ireland. Orla, good morning. Thanks for coming in.
Good morning, David. Thanks for having me.
Tell us a little bit about the Centre for Talented Youth at DCU. It's not a school. So what do you do?
So Centre for Talented Youth Ireland runs university style courses for gifted learners from six up to 17. So that would look like primary school classes on a Saturday and our residential programme that we run in DCU during the summer for secondary school students.
So students will come in and take subjects that they might not necessarily be exposed to in primary school or in secondary school, indeed.
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Chapter 2: Who are twice exceptional students and how are they identified?
Subjects like aeronautical engineering or zoology or forensic science or writing-based subjects. So what we're really focused on is bringing in students to challenge them and stretch them academically, which sometimes they don't get in school. And also, of course, creating a good social environment where they can meet like-minded peers.
Okay, so the worry is that kids who are quite bright and are able to do the curriculum in the school, they're getting a bit bored.
Sometimes they can get a bit bored and that can be very frustrating. You know, if you really want to move ahead, but you're kind of stuck, obviously students can become sometimes a bit, you know, demotivated that they feel like they want to move ahead. So we really enjoy getting to kind of get to see these students kind of stretch their talents and really focus on their strengths as well.
Yeah. And how do you select them?
So students usually come to us via a few different ways. So typically they might score pretty well on a standardised test in school and then they come and they would sit one of our assessments. But increasingly how we're getting a lot more of our students is through educational psychologist reports. So these typically would be our twice exceptional students.
So twice exceptional are students who are gifted with an additional education need. That would be maybe autism, ADHD.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do twice exceptional students face in traditional education?
dyslexia, dyspraxia. And if they've gone to an educational psychologist, usually they'll have given a test as well. You know, testing verbal reasoning, fluid reasoning, things like that. 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.
Wow, that's quite high. Is that a surprise to you?
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.
Okay. And, you know, you kind of have the impression that maybe in previous years, a lot of kids who might have had those special abilities, those gifts in particular subjects, weren't recognised.
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.
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Chapter 4: How does the Centre for Talented Youth support gifted learners?
Really? Yeah. Okay. So, and hopefully some of the students now will be perhaps joining you in future years. Yes. So if a parent is listening to this, right, and they think either that their child is particularly gifted or they might be, you know, twice exceptional in the way that you're saying, I mean, how do you know? Because every parent thinks their child is a genius probably. Yes.
So, like, I mean, the obvious indicators might be the testing that we were talking about. So they might score very high on a standardised test in school. But it could be other things like they're really searching for more knowledge. You know, they're asking more in-depth questions that they don't feel that their schoolwork is going in deep enough. That could be in science. It could be in history.
What I would definitely say for any parent who is interested or particularly any teacher or school leader, if they haven't already connected with us at C2II to do so, so dcu.ie forward slash C2II. And the other thing that I would encourage them if they're interested is DCU has just launched the first graduate programme in gifted education in Ireland. We're taking our first intake in September.
So the graduate diploma in gift education will cover lots of different topics across gift education, including identification, you know, how we can support these children in school, social, emotional needs. And that diploma is going to be open to both educators and advocates. And we know parents are sometimes the best advocates for their children.
OK, absolutely. Well, listen, thank you very much indeed for that. That's Dr Orla Dunn, Assistant Professor at DCU's School of Inclusive Education and Programmes Manager at the Centre for Talented Youth in Ireland. Thank you so much for coming in. Back after this.
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