Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do You Brag (Or Do Your Friends Think You Do?)

And another thread goes completely off the rails.

Special ed. and special needs mean low IQ. Sure, gifted kids have special educational requirements, but the term is used in the United States to mean low IQ and/or significant learning disabilities.

Low IQ (special ed. and special needs kids) face barriers that gifted kids just don't, even if they're 2E. Trying to redefine the terms by saying that gifted kids also are "special needs" could come across as a veiled attempt to pique someone's curiosity and as stealth bragging (my kid has special needs but not those kinds of special needs). Not saying that's the intent. Just saying, as has been noted here, that someone could reasonably infer it.

I think that's what Iucounou was getting at (correct me if I'm wrong). It was a kind of a subtle point in its own in-your-face way. Sometimes a jarring statement gets people thinking.

Yep. Went from really glad I started this thread to really sorry in just a few comments. I'm checking out - thanks for all who provided thoughtful, considerate replies to my question.

Hi everyone - I edited and deleted a few posts on this thread. I realize that people were using a few words and phrases to illustrate certain points, but others reading the thread may be offended by their use. Please send me a message if you have any questions.

Mark

Gifted children in Oregon are legally identified as a special need population.

ETA: TAG is defined under the law as special education.

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.

However, I agree that it is somewhat risky to use it to mean gifted, wih no 2E issues.

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.


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.

Maybe I travel in different circles. I'm curious if other people think of term that way. To me it could mean literally any kind of physical, mental, or socioemotional difference that requires accommodations at all (barring giftedness, though), and that is the way other parents I know use it as well.

I generally ask my clients if they were in "special classes".

What I'm looking for is an IQ of 70 or below. Special classes means that I'll send you out for a WAIS, WRAT, and Vineland.

Special needs generally means some sort of non-psychiatric cognitive impairment as far as I'm concerned.

I think the point of "special needs" as far as gifted kids is concerned is that they do have special needs in the school setting. Anti-grade skipping rhetoric says, "you're not letting a kid have a normal childhood". So, tell me then, how is it letting a child be a child if the spend their whole childhood being teachers helper? See, that's why a special needs child as far as school goes.