Diagnostic Overshadowing Among School Psychologists Working with Hearing-Impaired Learners

Diagnostic overshadowing is the existence of a primary diagnosis that alters the diagnostic and treatment recommendations resulting from a secondary disability. It biases school psychologists' diagnostic and treatment ratings of behaviorally disordered learners with a primary diagnosis of learning disabilities or profound deafness. This article demonstrates that school psychologists may provide different diagnostic ratings as a consequence of the primary diagnosis of profound deafness. School psychologists in this study were also less likely to provide therapeutic interventions, more likely to recommend general curriculum interventions (e.g., vocational and academic training), and less likely to recommend a change in the educational program for deaf students as a consequence of the behavioral reaction. Professional experience in working with deaf learners did not appear to be an intervening variable.