Comparison of Students’ Achievement: Deaf, Learning Disabled, and Deaf With a Learning Disability

Approximately half of deaf students have a co-occurring disability. Although assessing and diagnosing learning disabilities (LD) is particularly difficult in this population, it is important to properly identify students who may be eligible for academic interventions or accommodations. The authors compared samples of students who are (a) classified with LD, (b) deaf individuals, and (c) deaf individuals classified with LD in terms of their performance on a standardized measure of academic achievement. The results of their analyses suggest that math calculation skills and classroom grades are useful in classifying deaf students with LD. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and areas for further research.