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Education
of Students who are
Gifted
and Visually Impaired
Stuart
Omdal University
of Northern Colorado Sandra
K. Ruconich, University
of Northern Colorado Kay
Alicyn Ferrell University
of Northern Colorado Anne
L. Corn Peabody
College Children and youth who are gifted and talented, by virtue of outstanding abilities, require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those typically provided to students of average ability. Students who are gifted and talented (a) “perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment... in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas,” (b) “possess an unusual leadership capacity,” or (c) excel in specific academic fields” (U.S. Department of Education, 1993, pg. 26). Students who are gifted exhibit the wide range of physical and/or sensory abilities, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status represented in the general population. However, students who are both gifted and visually impaired often remain ineligible for programs and services because the visual impairment itself masks or suppresses the gifts and talents. Special education must be provided in order for students who are gifted and visually impaired to achieve their potential through implementation of a well-planned, systematic program based on individual needs, abilities, and disabilities
Students who are both gifted and visually impaired
need programs and placement options that respond to their needs in four areas:
(a) identification; (b) curricular modifications; (c) psychological needs and
counseling; and (d) specially trained teachers and support services. Identification
Identifying giftedness in children who are visually
impaired is a complicated process at best.
Norms are not well established for adapted editions of tests (brailled or
taped), enlarged print seldom
reproduces graphics accurately, and lower scores may actually reflect the
inability of tests to capture and discern intelligence based on non-visual
behaviors. Additionally, as Gardner
(1993) points out, superior abilities can be demonstrated in a variety of areas,
singly and in combination. Alternate
assessment procedures advocated for use with students who are gifted and
talented (Renzulli, 1994) and which may be particularly applicable for students
with visual impairments, are still in experimental usage with the general
population, but demonstrate the potential to identify a broader range of
students based on multiple factors without exclusive reliance on test scores.
Other barriers which hamper the identification process in assessing the
true potential of students with visual disabilities are caused by factors such
as lowered expectations for students with visual impairments generally, poor
self-concept, non-challenging environments, and/or lack of learning
opportunities imposed by the visual impairment itself.
Variations in learning media, concept development,
and learning styles specific to students with visual impairments should be
considered in selected instruments and approaches for the assessment of students
who are gifted and visually impaired. In
addition to standardized tests, tools for identifying students who are gifted
and visually impaired might include examination of students’ problem-solving
abilities and strategies, documentation of creative compensatory strategies for
coping with their visual impairments, student-developed portfolios reflecting
work done both at home and at school, parent
interviews and/or journals, and teacher interviews. Improved Educational
Options
Educators of students who are gifted and educators
of students who are visually impaired must collaborate, focusing on the full
range of human development toward potential.
By acknowledging special needs among students who are gifted and visually
impaired, the level of instruction for all children will be improved.
Combined efforts are needed to promote research and to encourage
application of theory and innovative programs. Curricular Modifications
The most pressing problem faced by students with
visual impairments is access to the curriculum.
Most educational curricula are based on the premise that students have
normal vision; without translation into alternative media, concepts,
abstractions and synthesis of the curriculum may be lost or severely delayed in
students with visual impairments. This extends as well to verbal descriptions and incidental
learning which takes place daily in the classroom. While teachers of students with visual impairments cannot
accompany students throughout the day, they should be integrallyinvolved with
the students’ programs, providing learning materials in adapted media, as well
as assisting the other teachers in providing non-visual examples and references.
These issues are equally important when students with visual impairments
are also gifted, since the gifted curriculum-whether it is enriched or
advanced-is no more accessible simply because the student has been identified as
gifted.
Students who are gifted and visually impaired
should also be given the communication skills, adaptive techniques, activities
of daily living, and mobility skills when they need them, rather than when a
particular curriculum recommends their introduction.
At times, the curriculum may also need to be compacted (Reis, Burns,
Renzulli 1992), in order to allow time for exploring students’ interests and
developing dormant and unrecognized talents. Support Services
Support services for students who are gifted and
with visually impaired should include three components: Instant access to
materials available to sighted peers. Given the quantity and pace of reading and analysis typically
required in classes for students who are gifted, it is imperative that materials
in appropriate alternative media be made accessible virtually instantly to
students with visual impairments. Otherwise,
they may fall behind-not because they cannot read and analyze as effectively as
their peers with sight, but because they simply so not have the materials in
time to do so. Alternative Assistive
Technology
Since it often takes longer for students with
visual impairments to complete
assignments, due to factors such as slower reading speeds and increased time for
note-taking and/or review, anything which makes access to information easier or
more efficient--whether technology, low vision devices, or strategies for
personal resourcefulness-should have high priority for these students.
In addition to making necessary materials more quickly and easily
accessible, a number of currently accessible on-line information services can
provide these students with opportunities essential to facilitating their
individual research interests and learning opportunities. Mentoring by adults who
are gifted and visually impaired
Students who are gifted and visually impaired
frequently do not realize how other persons who are gifted and visually impaired
handle disability-specific situations, how they perform a variety of traditional
or innovative careers, or how they learn about and utilize the newest advances
in assistive technology. Adults who are gifted and visually impaired can serve as
models, listeners, and advisors, while at the same time providing valuable
information and mentioning. Psychosocial Needs
Because of their “twice exceptional” status,
students who are gifted and visually impaired must have enhanced opportunities
for development in several areas. The self-esteem of these students is potentially at risk as a
result of a variety of external and internal factors (Tutee, 1984).
The risk to self-esteem increases because of the difficulty of finding
others like themselves; other students who are gifted cannot relate to their
visual impairment, and students who are visually impaired cannot relate to
their. Since research indicates
that appropriate social skills are a potential problem for both students who are
gifted (Borland, 1989) and students with visual impairments (Erin, Dignan, &
Brown, 1991; Sacks, Kekelis, & Gaylord-Ross, 1992), these
skills-particularly the skill of valuing differences-must be emphasized.
Just as important as the development of good social skills is the
development of good intrapersonal skills (Gardner, 1993; Tuttle, 1994),
including such diverse abilities as resourcefulness and initiative,
understanding self, response to failure (Tuttle, 1984), informed choice-making
(Tuttle, 1994), and achieving balance between work and play (Tuttle, 1994). Especially Trained
Teachers
Educators must be adequately trained at both pre-and in-service levels if
they are to realize their responsibility to students who are gifted and visually
impaired. Training can improve educational options for students who are
gifted and visually impaired by addressing and developing competence in the
following areas: Knowledge of student abilities, disabilities, gifts, and
talents, and how these constructs affect learning; Methods of developing
disability-specific skills designed as alternatives to visual learning;
Implications of the visual impairment on the identification process for gifted
programs; Ability to distinguish between true gifts and talents and abilities
which are typical and expected of students with visua impairments;
Understanding that overprotectiveness may lead to learned helplessness,
which can limit risk taking and suppress the development of gifts and talents;
Strategies necessary for academic assessment, curricular development, and
curricular modification; Use of assistive devices, technology, and support
services which go beyond basic skill development and enable students to be
responsible for their own learning; Awareness of the psychosocial needs of
students who are gifted and visually impaired which are created by this unique
combination of ability and disability; Strategies which promote resourcefulness
and initiative-taking, provide opportunities for informed choices and allow
failure while celebrating success; Development of social skills and
relationships with peers with and without disabilities, and with adult mentors
who are also gifted and visually impaired.
Collaboration and team-building with families and other professionals;
Realistic expectations in regard to gifts, talents, and visual
disabilities. Position
The Division on Visual Impairments of the Council for Exceptional
Children believes that special consideration must be given to the issues facing
those who are twice exceptional. The
circumstances created by this twice exceptional status produce unique needs for
students who are gifted and visually impaired that are qualitatively different
from the needs of each group of which they are a part.
Education requires the cultivation of students’ special gifts and
talents, while simultaneously meeting the unique needs created by visual
impairments. For students who are
gifted and visually impaired, special education services must go beyond
traditional deficit-based or compensatory approaches and toward enriching
experiences which develop and build upon gifts and talents.
Students with visual impairments should be assessed for an included in
programs for students who are gifted. Simultaneously
, parents should be fully advised, consulted and informed concerning their
child’s total needs and learning requirements.
Once identification has occurred, decisions regarding educational options
and settings, curriculum, and counseling services should address the student’s
giftedness, visual handicap, and individual needs. Readings
Borland, J.H. (1989).
Planning and implementing programs
for the gifted. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Corn, A.L. (1985).
Chapter reaction. In J.R. Whitmore & C.J. Maker, Intellectual giftedness
in disabled persons (pp. 93-95). Rockville,
MD: Aspen Systems Corporation.
Corn, A.L. (1986).
Gifted students who have a visual handicap:
Can we meet their educational needs?
Education of the Visually
Handicapped, 8(2), 71-84.
Erin, J.N., Dignan, K., & Brown, P.A. (1991).
Are social skills teachable? A
review of the literature. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 85, 58-1.
Gardner, H. (1993).
Multiple intelligences:
The theory in practice. New
York: Basic Books.
Johnsen, S.K. & Corn, A.L. (1989).
The past, present, and future of education for gifted children with
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Reis, S.M., Burns, D.E., & Renzulli, J.S.
(1992). Curriculum
compacting: The complete guide to modifying the regular curriculum for
high ability students. Mansfield
Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.
Renzulli, J.S. (1994).
Schools for talent development: A
practical plan for total school improvement using the schoolwide enrichment
model. Mansfield Center, CT:
Creative Learning press.
Ruconich, S. (1985).
Chapter reaction. In J.R. Whitmore & C.J. Maker, Intellectual giftedness in disabled persons (pg. 96-98).
Rockville, MD: Aspen Systems Corporation.
Sacks, S.Z., Kekelis, L.S., & Gaylord-Ross,
R.J. (1992). The
development of social skills by blind and visually impaired students:
Exploratory studies and strategies. New
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Szymanski, E.M., & Corn, A.L. (1989).
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Challenge to rehabilitation counselors.
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Tuttle, D. (1984).
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blindness. Springfield, IL:
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Tuttle, D. (1994).
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Quarterly, 39(4), 15-19.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational
Research and Improvement (1993). National excellence: A
case for developing America’s talent. Washington,
DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Whitmore, J. (1987).
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Maker, C.J. (1985). Intellectual
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Aspen Systems Corporation. |