Jess Casey: Being a gifted child is no advantage in our education system

Education specialists and the mother of a twice-exceptional child explode the myth that 'the bright kids in the class will be fine by themselves'

A conundrum facing gifted children and their parents and teachers is that special education teaching is geared towards children who are falling behind — whereas gifted children are often very far ahead. Picture: iStock

Deirdre Jacob knew early on that her son was different from other children.

At the age of two and a half, he started to develop an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the names and different classifications of dinosaurs, animals, and sea creatures inspired by a love of watching National Geographic.

He related better to adults than children his own age. By five, he could give a 10-minute presentation on the different habitats of the Amazon rainforest that would rival the work of a university student, and had taught himself multiplication during the covid lockdown.

“We realised when he was very young that there was something there,” Deirdre explained. She just didn’t know what.

He was obviously very bright and flew through pre-school. So, it was a surprise when one day out of the blue, at the age of six, he told his mother in great upset that he wasn’t going to primary school anymore.

“He said ‘you said school is for learning, and I’m not learning, so I’m not going to school’ and that was the beginning of an interesting road for us as a family.

"Different people would say 'Oh my God, he reminds me of Young Sheldon’ but I’d never watched the programme so I didn’t know what they were talking about. 

Centre for Talented Youth Ireland academic programme manager Orla Dunne. Picture: DCU 

"There were things we were noticing but we didn’t have the expertise to understand what was going on with him.”

Following his upset over school, he was then assessed by an educational psychologist who ruled out autism “straight away”.

However, they also tested his IQ, discovering it was in the 99th percentile of the general population.

This meant that not only was his cognitive ability well above other children in his own age group; he scored higher than 99% of the entire population.

He was later diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, a neurological condition that can make the school environment difficult.

'Twice-exceptional'

Deirdre’s son is classified as ‘twice-exceptional’; the term given to students who are both gifted and who have an additional educational need such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or dyspraxia.

Often, their abilities can mask their challenges, while at the same time, their additional needs can conceal their gifted traits.

“There’s a perception that it's an advantage to a child, which is actually a misconception. There’s not a lot of research in Ireland on how to manage giftedness in the classroom.”

No policy or legislation 

Ireland still does not have any legislation or national policy defining ‘giftedness’, the term most commonly used to describe exceptionally advanced ability and potential.

The Education Act (1998) defines special educational need to include “the educational needs of students who have a disability and the educational needs of exceptionally able students”. 

However, the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act (2004) does not include any provisions for children whose educational needs are not met due to their exceptional ability.

The inspectorate has previously raised concerns about the provision for exceptionally able students, but a national policy remains in development.

Centre for Talented Youth Ireland

Orla Dunne is the academic programme manager with the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland (CTYI) at Dublin City University, the only formal organisation for gifted children in Ireland.

It operates nationwide, with students joining the centre either through an assessment or through a recommendation from an educational psychologist.

'The services are more targeted on the additional need, and for a lot of these kids not meeting their strengths can have quite an impact on their self-esteem, their self-concept, and also on their long-term academic futures.' Picture: iStock

“The majority of our twice-exceptional students will come to us via educational psychologists,” she said. 

CTYI offers younger students the opportunity to study subjects such as zoology, aeronautical engineering, or creative writing, while programmes for second-level students tend to mirror undergraduate university courses.

“No two students who come on the programme are the same,” Ms Dunne explained. 

Some students may have higher abilities in math or English, or like Deirdre’s son, they scored higher than expected of their peers in certain cognitive tests.

The programme works with young people scoring in the 95th percentile.

“We do have a lot of variation. We have children who attend the programme who might be getting As and Bs in their exams and doing really well, but we also have children who don’t do really well in their exams.

“That kind of system just doesn’t suit every student so it wouldn’t be unusual for us to have students who a teacher might be surprised that they’ve qualified. 

"Perhaps some of their testing in school doesn’t reflect that.”

Focus on child's strengths 

Often, twice-exceptional children will receive support that focuses only on remedial intervention, rather than their strengths, a recent study carried out by researchers at CTYI and DCU found.

While two-thirds of students receive special education support for their additional needs, the majority received no support focused on their giftedness.

“We feel that for a lot of our twice-exceptional students, the focus is not necessarily on their strengths. 

"The services are more targeted on the additional need, and for a lot of these kids not meeting their strengths can have quite an impact on their self-esteem, their self-concept, and also on their long-term academic futures.

“For us, we would like to see more general understanding in the mainstream education system about giftedness, and the challenges that gifted children can have, and to get rid of this outdated perception that the bright kids in the class will be fine by themselves.”

Through CTYI, Deirdre Jacob’s son, now almost 11, has accessed courses in medicine and zoology. 

He is very interested in geopolitics, and attends advanced classes in maths and debate at his mainstream school. It takes constant advocacy on her son’s behalf to secure these supports.

Special education geared for those falling behind

The Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation is geared towards children who are falling behind, Deirdre said.

“That’s the risk with these children — they aren’t generally falling behind,” she explained. 

“In fact, very often they are very far ahead. You wouldn’t see any issue in the tests they do every couple of years because they are scoring really, really well.”

However, mental health issues can also be common amongst gifted children.

“They have this massive need for input at a very young age that our education system does not account for.

The curriculum is just the curriculum, so these children get very bored and disappointed very early on, which is why my six-year-old came to me and said ‘I’m not going to school anymore’.

“Our children want to go to school, they want to be stimulated but they end up so disappointed when they go there because they’re just not getting what they need.”

There is also a “huge connection” between a twice-exceptional student’s abilities and their additional needs, and the capacity to become dysregulated, she added.

“The less stimulated my child is from an academic point of view, the more dysregulated he’ll become from a movement-seeking point of view. The more he is stimulated intellectually, the less need he has to walk around the school.”

Teachers not trained to deal with giftedness

Second-level teacher Peter Lydon has specialised in working with exceptionally-able and twice-exceptional students.

“There really is no training at initial teacher training level in gifted education," he said.

I’ve come across teachers who sort-of reacted with disdain to parents saying their child is gifted, saying things like ‘well, if your child is gifted why doesn’t he have his homework in?’

“That’s a ridiculous statement for any teacher to make. A child may be gifted and it's still possible for them not to have their homework in, because they are a child,” he laughed. 

Peter Lydon: 'They [gifted children] need teachers who know their stuff. They crave that stimulation.'

“Fundamentally, the problem is that there really is no training at teacher education level.”

To keep gifted students engaged, he believes they need teachers who see their potential and can challenge them.

“They need teachers who know their stuff. They crave that stimulation. It really comes down to positive regard, and they need to know their teacher sees them for who they are.”

A lot of the time, schools are under pressure and not getting the resources they need, Deirdre said.

“When you have a child who is twice-exceptional, very often the focus is on the ‘deficit’ because its seen as problematic, and giftedness gets left by the wayside all the time.

“It leads to a huge loss of potential for these children, but for the country as well. Its the belonging piece that often gets overlooked, and challenging perceptions of what giftedness means for these children. Its a double-edged sword.”

Department of Education statement

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it recognises that additional support and guidance may be necessary in respect of students with exceptional abilities. 

It has developed and introduced Saibhriú, a pilot project to develop and enhance teachers’ practice for students who are exceptionally able or gifted, she added. 

"Work is ongoing in this project to develop and embed suitable approaches in schools."

• Jess Casey, Education Correspondent