Sir, – The Government’s proposed reform of the Assessment of Need process, aimed at reducing long waiting lists for children’s disability services, risks solving one problem while quietly creating another. It could lead to the exclusion of gifted and twice-exceptional children from identification and support.
The reform shifts the system away from comprehensive clinical assessment toward a more streamlined model focused on functional need. While this may improve timelines, it also risks narrowing access to cognitive assessment in practice.
That matters, because cognitive assessment is often the only way to identify children whose developmental profiles are uneven or masked.
Twice-exceptional children who are both highly able and have additional neurodevelopmental or learning needs such as autism, ADHD, or dyslexia, are already among the most overlooked and under-supported in the system.
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International research consistently shows these children are frequently missed because their strengths can conceal their difficulties, while their difficulties can obscure their ability. Irish evidence reflects this gap.
Recent research on parents of twice-exceptional children found many receive little or no support for their giftedness. It also found that families often experience long delays or incomplete identification of their child’s needs. In practice, recognition is already inconsistent and unequal.
Reducing access to cognitive assessment will deepen that inequality. Children who appear “fine” on the surface because they are articulate, academically able in some areas or coping well enough, may not be identified at all, despite significant hidden difficulties.
Families who can afford private assessments will continue to access answers, while others will be left navigating a system that no longer has the tools to see their child fully. The consequences are not abstract.
As shown by international research, these children are at increased risk of disengagement from school, anxiety and long-term underachievement. Many are labelled as unmotivated or difficult when, in reality, their needs have simply gone unrecognised.
A system designed for efficiency must not come at the cost of visibility. If we remove the mechanisms that allow us to identify complexity (cognitive assessments), we should not be surprised when some children disappear from view.
This reform may reduce waiting lists. But if it does so by narrowing the parameters of who qualifies to be properly supported and understood, then we are not fixing the system – we are redefining who counts within it. – Yours, etc,
DEIRDRE JACOB,
(On behalf of Parent Advocates of Exceptional Children Ireland),
Lucan,
Dublin.
