I disagree--it could mean dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger's, CAPD, dysgraphia, or a host of other things that kids on this forum have. Could also mean asthma or a wheelchair or diabetes. I certainly do not equate "special needs" with low IQ at all, and I don't think that's its current use.
Prior to my experiences with DD's school over the last two years, my only encounters with the terms "special education" and "special needs" were in reference to children with handicaps that manifested themselves as apparent low IQ. That's the environment I grew up in 30 years ago, when "special education" was a single class in my elementary school that taught the children with severe neurological or genetic impairments. They would have also included the severely autistic, who may or may not be low-IQ, but looked that way to the casual observer, because not much was known about autism at that point in history.
I'd say that for the vast majority of people, that's their experience with "special ed" and "special needs" as well, and that will color their perceptions when you use those terms. I don't think it's a reasonable assumption that everyone you work with is familiar enough with the latest research into human cognitive development to update their understanding of those terms... unless you happen to work in a related field. I don't.
And it's not like this older use of the terminology has been discarded in recent times. See Stephen Lynch.
However, I agree that it is somewhat risky to use it to mean gifted, wih no 2E issues.
Indeed. I think it would come off as successfully as a rich politician who says he's been harmed by the economic downturn, he had to sell two vacation homes and write off the losses on his taxes. Our gifted children have something that a lot of parents wish their children had, and it's worth remembering that while there is a set of challenges in front of us that few would understand, having a gifted child is a good problem to have. This is why we have to be so careful about giving offense, right?
DD is not 2E, and if a coworker said something that suggested that I'm speaking of her as being less than average, I would expect her to be extremely upset.
