Deafness and giftedness

Lately, more and more researchers write about gifted children with disabilities in various fields, about those who are gifted and also have special educational needs. For these children, in foreign literature, terms such as ‘’twice exceptional, double exceptional, uniquely gifted’’ are used. The aim of this kind of research is mostly focused on identifying and proving strong areas, and identifying the talent of children with special needs. Researches related to deafness and giftedness are rare, especially due to the low incidence of this group and the related methodological challenges. Often, giftedness is obscured by a disability, which is a major obstacle to discovering talent. The occurrence of gifted deaf and hard of hearing children varies between 3 % and 5 % in the population of persons with special needs. National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) states that there are 0.5% of talented deaf children in the entire population of children. Talented deaf and hard of hearing people have different needs, so they need appropriate education and treatment, and such activities in which they will be able to express themselves and where their disability can be recognized as an extraordinariness.