Strategies for Developing Creative Abilities of Hearing-Impaired Children

The current study compared a traditional approach to art education with a curriculum designed to develop creative abilities. Twenty-eight profoundly hearing-impaired children between 8 and 10 years of age were exposed to one of the two curricula for 12 weeks during their regularly scheduled art classes. Pretest and posttest scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural were the dependent measures. Data analyses indicated significant improvement in two of the creativity measures (Flexibility and Originality) by the group exposed to the creative thinking curriculum.