Gifted education for gifted deaf students

Welcome to the new [Deaf + Gifted] Education blog.

What is gifted education? In the United States, federal special education law focuses on those who need accommodations to access instruction, but students on the upper end of the intelligence bell curve also have special academic needs. Gifted students’ instruction must be modified in order to keep them engaged in learning, emotionally supported, and academically challenged. This does not always happen, especially in a national education climate that seems to focus most intensely on raising the lowest test scores. Are we leaving gifted children behind?

Now consider that intelligence testing is typically a major factor in identifying students for gifted education programming. Intelligence is multifaceted, but most intelligence tests place emphasis on language and verbal reasoning. Verbal IQ tests are conducted in spoken and written English, and normed on hearing children whose first language is English. (Of course, verbal intelligence tests have been developed and normed for native users of other spoken/written languages such as French, Spanish, and so on.) Assessing deaf children with only a verbal IQ test may not allow for an accurate measure of intellectual ability.

It is not uncommon for deaf and hard of hearing students, who do not have 100% access to spoken language, to experience language delays, and reduced access to general knowledge that hearing children simply overhear or casually discuss with other native English users. There are some tests which are designed to measure nonverbal intelligence.

Do schools use nonverbal IQ tests to qualify deaf students for gifted educational programs? Do deaf children get appropriately served in gifted programs designed for hearing students? How often to school programs focus on assessing deaf and hard of hearing children for giftedness, not just deficits?

My hunch is that many gifted deaf students are never formally identified as gifted because their atypical language acquisition clouds the picture. That is, deaf students may well be more intellectually gifted than a verbal IQ test can accurately measure, if the IQ test is predicated on native English fluency. There are very few resources available about how to identify and effectively teach deaf and hard of hearing students who are gifted and talented, and I would like to learn more.

On this site, I will be posting more information from related publications, web sites, and organizations focused on deaf education, gifted education, and serving gifted deaf students. Join me on my educational journey as I learn more about these issues.

A note on terminology

On this blog I use the word "deaf" to refer to all deaf and hard of hearing students, regardless of their communication modalities, cultural identities, degrees of hearing loss, or use of amplification technologies. It is simply a shorthand, umbrella term, and not intended to exclude anyone. Similarly, I use the word "gifted" to refer to all individuals who exhibit characteristics of giftedness, and who (if accurately assessed) would score in the gifted range of intelligence, including all degrees of giftedness.