Re: Evaluating TAG in deaf/hoh child

[Guest guest]

Barbara,

Our school just had a specialist come in and do what is called a

physiological educational evaluation, which included a standard IQ test. He

was brought in for several different reasons but finding out that she scored

the highest on the IQ of any child he had ever tested is going to open

the door for all of us to better utilize her strong points

[Guest guest]

Hi Barbara,

We've been there and done that. Unfortunately, the wall we kept running into

was that the schools seem to have a tremendous difficulty seeing the child

as *both* gifted and HoH. A deaf/HoH child will have obvious challenges with

certain types of testing and tasks and, unless you have an evaluator who

knows what these challenges are, then it is unlikely they will determine

that your child is " gifted " .

We took my daughter (moderate severe hi-freq loss bilaterally) to the Gifted

Development Center in Denver and walked away with boatloads of information

and a team of professionals ready to advocate for us. And by the way, they

confirmed what we'd suspected...that she was gifted.

The trick is that a HoH child typically uses lots of mental energy

*compensating* for their disABILITY, therefore making it harder to identify

them as gifted. Think of the child who has learned to lip read or sign

fluently by the age of 3 or 4 -- this same child may not be putting

1000-piece jigsaw puzzles together because they have used their time and

energy learning to communicate.

I have lots and lots of good info from the GDC which I'd be happy to share

(I think I can scan it and email it if you are interested). But in answer to

your original question, my opinion is that you start with having someone

evaluate your child who is an EXPERT in giftedness because they have seen

gifted children with all different kinds of disABILITYs. In the meantime,

I'll dig out my info from GDC so let me know if you would like to see it.

There is not much on the web, but you can start by checking out these sites:

ERIC Clearinghouse on Dual Exceptionalities:

http://ericec.org/fact/dualexep.htm

In particular, the best article on the site above is this one which

discusses characteristics of HearingImpaired/gifted children:

http://ericec.org/digests/e574.htm

Hoagies Gifted Page on Twice-Exceptional Children:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/giftedld.htm

And, finally, please feel free to email offline if you'd like. I'm not an

expert on the topic -- just a parent who has learned the ropes on this one.

- Pam

> Greetings all,

>

> I need information, any information, about evaluating giftedness in a

> hard-of-hearing child.

>

> What sort of tests/evaluations would be appropriate? I'm assuming that I

> would need to find someone who is experienced in interpreting results for

> gifted children AND in interpreting results for deaf children. Are there

> such human beings? :-)

>

> Really, any information at all would be helpful. I've looked and looked

> and found very little.

>

> Thanks,

> Barbara Handley

[Guest guest]

>

> In particular, the best article on the site above is this one which

> discusses characteristics of HearingImpaired/gifted children:

> http://ericec.org/digests/e574.htm

>

I thought I'd pull out the characteristics of gifted/hearing impaired

children from the above article in case anyone else wanted to take a look --

see below. And, I also had another thought...remember this when advocating

for your child: Helen Keller was among history's most gifted and talented

humans. It's a good thing today's public school system wasn't the ones

educating her for she might be labeled as " deaf " or " mute " or " blind " but

probably never as " gifted " . - Pam

Gifted Students with Hearing Impairments

Development of speech-reading skills without instruction

Early reading ability

Excellent memory

Ability to function in the regular school setting

Rapid grasp of ideas

High reasoning ability

Superior performance in school

Wide range of interests

Nontraditional ways of getting information

Use of problem-solving skills in everyday situations

Possibly on grade level

Delays in concept attainment

Self starters

Good sense of humor

Enjoyment of manipulating environment

Intuition

Ingenuity in solving problems

Symbolic language abilities (different symbol system)

(Cline, 1999; Whitmore & Maker, 1985)