[misc.handicap] Mensa, iq and deafies

James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (05/30/91)

Index Number: 15828

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

For many Deaf people, when you give an IQ test, you are not testing
what you might think you are. The test is in English to begin with.
The Deaf person may have an educational, familial, and cultural background
in which English was not naturally acquired or mastered. This is typical
of many Deafies due to educational systems insisting on hearizing the
Deaf via audition training whether they actually benefit sufficiently
from it or not and ignoring the need to develop a first language on
which to base the teaching of English as a second language. So what
you get is a Deaf person without real mastery of English in most cases.
Now your test is in english remember. So what is happening is that
you are testing that person's ability (or inability) to decipher the
language used in the test no matter what the content area is. despite
the Deaf persons potential or exisiting cognitive abilities in a given
area, they may not and often are not exhibited due to to the test being
whatit is. May Deafies would not qualify for Mensa by default in this
case.

An interesting thing is that once during a SAT at school, I misunderstood
my instructions. A group of "low verbal" Deaf kids were being tested
in reading. I signed teh test instructions and the test stories and
questions. For better than half the test I did this. It was brought
ot my attention that this particular group taking this particular test
was not to receive such a presentation of the test material. I stopped
doing this immediately. The kids were anguished because of it. The
complained that only when I signed did they understand what the test
was all about. Out of curiosity, I looked at the test answers before
and after my blunder. Many of the most "low verbal" students provided
something like 78% accuracy on test answers for questions signed and
dipped to something like 26% for the sections not signed. What does
this prove? Well, beyond the fact that I need to be more careful about
my instructions, it can mean many things. That the kids should be tested
via ASL rather than English to get a real knowledge of their abilities.
Or it might mean some else entirely. For me it was an astonishing experience.
One that I hope to research some day.

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James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (06/04/91)

Index Number: 15962

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Ann, as I have stated repeatedly, the average Deaf child is not going
to master English until educators realize that that child must have
an easily acquired first language in place f i r s t. ASL is for the
American Deaf child the only one that is easily acquired. From there
go to teach English as a second language and from thence all the other
academics.

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Verna.Forristal@f71.n343.z1.fidonet.org (Verna Forristal) (06/04/91)

Index Number: 15966

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

 JW> Verna enjoyed your post too on Mensa. I replied to the earlier post from
 JW> Dennis to express my appreciation and clarify some things. Hope you
 JW> caught it.

I did.  I called national today and found that they accept the scores from
the "Non-verbal intelligence test for deaf and hearing."  This is apparently a
test done in pictures instead of English.  I am trying to get more info on it,
and also see if they will allow someone to sign the standard Mensa test.  I
should have an answer in a couple of days.

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Tim.Smith@f429.n275.z1.fidonet.org (Tim Smith) (06/17/91)

Index Number: 16062

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Oh yes, they do need to learn English!  BUT- not in place of ASL.
An ASL student with an ENGLISH teacher that signs ASl learns English
much better than a poor deaf kid dumped right into english.

Would  you force a china man to learn english through english, or would
you teach english through his native language, the one that BEST suits
him?

Why not teach english through ASL?   This hasn't hardly been tried yet.

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w.fisher@qut.edu.au (Bill Fisher) (06/22/91)

Index Number: 16340

I failed to post this a couple of weeks ago and am trying again. Hence 
it is a little out of date.

In article <15966@handicap.news>, Verna.Forristal@f71.n343.z1.fidonet.org
(Verna Forristal) writes:
> Index Number: 15966
> 
>  JW> Verna enjoyed your post too on Mensa. I replied to the earlier post from
>  JW> Dennis to express my appreciation and clarify some things. Hope you
>  JW> caught it.
> 
> I did.  I called national today and found that they accept the scores from
> the "Non-verbal intelligence test for deaf and hearing."  This is apparently a
> test done in pictures instead of English.  I am trying to get more info on it,
> and also see if they will allow someone to sign the standard Mensa test.  I
> should have an answer in a couple of days.
> 

I was interested to see this item. I missed the earlier ones as I have
been away. 

We recently admitted a blind and deaf lady, Penny Harland, to Mensa
using special tests. Mensa is very interested in admitting handicapped
people. The ultimate authority on Mensa admission is our International
Supervisory Psychologist and I know that testing handicapped people is a
special interest of hers. I very much doubt that she would accept
someone signing the standard Mensa Test as that would change the test
conditions and hence undoubtedly destroy the standardisation of the
test. However Mensa accepts any one of a large number of properly
standardised tests and will accept certificates from properly qualified
psychologists who have used such tests or have otherwise properly 
established that the candidate meets our entry citeria.

Incidentally Penny Harland has recently acquired a computer, modem and
InterNet address and learnt to use electronic mail although not yet
News. She would welcome a note. Her InterNet address is 
Harland@qut.edu.au. Mine is W.Fisher@qut.edu.au.

Bill Fisher
Chairman
Australian Mensa