**5. Expert performance and practical intelligence**

In recent years, the general public's interest has been captured by the role of expert performance by individuals who have achieved world-class acclaim in their chosen profession. Books of the topic include Geoff Colvin's *Talent is Overrated* (2010), Daniel Coyle's *The Talent Code* (2009), and Malcolm Gladwell's (2009) *Outliers*. Each book has popularized the seminal work of Professor Anders Ericsson, widely acclaimed as the world's leading authority on expert performance, and his colleagues. Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich, and Hoffman's (2006) review of studies regarding expert performance has suggested that deliberate practice is more valuable than innate talent. Deliberate practice is defined as the individual's intense and often repetitive practice of a technique, craft or skill. Many of these tasks are highly sophisticated and specialized, and cannot be mastered or executed without sustained deliberate practice. Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993) further noted that ten or more years of sustained, intense, and specified practice are the norm with world-class performers across the breadth of professions. Gladwell (2009) refined this concept as the '10,000 hour rule'. Expert performers typically devote 1,000 hours of deliberate practice yearly to their craft for at least a decade before operating at a world class level of performance; beyond 1,000 hours practice a year diminishes the quality due to the human inability to sustain such effort.

The consensus is that no amount of innate talent will achieve optimum outcomes if practice is forfeited, denied, or is of a continuous poor quality. Ericsson et al. (1993) additionally note that efficient learning is impossible and improvement minimal - even for highly motivated individuals - without adequate tuition or feedback. Nevertheless, Ericsson et al. suggested that the intervention of specific instruction can lead to the eventual improvement of temporarily arrested or suboptimal skill levels. The acquisition of expert knowledge ideally requires an individual to receive explicit instructions through supervision of a teacher who

revealed specific cognitive attributes (e.g., hard work and high expectations). In another strength-based study, Bain et al. (2004) sought to understand the connection between coping strategies and socialization in deaf adult participants (n = 38) raised using spoken language. The majority of participants had developed psychosocial strategies to negotiate deafnessrelated social difficulties. Strategies included initiating modifications of the environment to ensure communication ease, adapting to the needs of others, participating in activities, and maintaining a lifestyle with hearing peers. Participants in Bain et al.'s study also expressed

Given the unique psychology required to contend with inordinate challenges, a deaf individual who is achieving social and professional participation, and who sustains a healthy mental wellbeing, can be considered a remarkable example of human performance. Strength-based studies by Bain et al. (2004), Luckner and Muir (2001), and Powers (2011) emphasized the importance of the deaf individual's own attributes and character, and also alluded to proactive psychosocial strategies. Despite this, Bain et al. and Powers both opined that there is scarce research of how deaf children become successful adults regarding their professions, relationships, mental health, and overall quality of life. Should such future research be undertaken, much could be gained from understanding how deaf individuals operationalize their success in their daily interactions. This focus may become sharper when

In recent years, the general public's interest has been captured by the role of expert performance by individuals who have achieved world-class acclaim in their chosen profession. Books of the topic include Geoff Colvin's *Talent is Overrated* (2010), Daniel Coyle's *The Talent Code* (2009), and Malcolm Gladwell's (2009) *Outliers*. Each book has popularized the seminal work of Professor Anders Ericsson, widely acclaimed as the world's leading authority on expert performance, and his colleagues. Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich, and Hoffman's (2006) review of studies regarding expert performance has suggested that deliberate practice is more valuable than innate talent. Deliberate practice is defined as the individual's intense and often repetitive practice of a technique, craft or skill. Many of these tasks are highly sophisticated and specialized, and cannot be mastered or executed without sustained deliberate practice. Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993) further noted that ten or more years of sustained, intense, and specified practice are the norm with world-class performers across the breadth of professions. Gladwell (2009) refined this concept as the '10,000 hour rule'. Expert performers typically devote 1,000 hours of deliberate practice yearly to their craft for at least a decade before operating at a world class level of performance; beyond 1,000 hours practice a year diminishes the quality due to the

The consensus is that no amount of innate talent will achieve optimum outcomes if practice is forfeited, denied, or is of a continuous poor quality. Ericsson et al. (1993) additionally note that efficient learning is impossible and improvement minimal - even for highly motivated individuals - without adequate tuition or feedback. Nevertheless, Ericsson et al. suggested that the intervention of specific instruction can lead to the eventual improvement of temporarily arrested or suboptimal skill levels. The acquisition of expert knowledge ideally requires an individual to receive explicit instructions through supervision of a teacher who

self-confidence, little social anxiety, and pride in their strategic adaptive skills.

viewed from the perspective of expert performance.

human inability to sustain such effort.

**5. Expert performance and practical intelligence** 

can make astute diagnoses of errors and provide corrective feedback when necessary. Training and monitoring of expert performance also involves the administering of appropriate tasks according to the individual's skill level. Individualized instruction is generally recognized as superior to training by curricula or in groups. After tuition, a high performer can operate alone to accumulate and refine knowledge of the effective methods and associated practices necessary for expert performance.

However, Ericsson et al.'s (2006) investigated foci are located in the diverse professions within which extraordinary individuals have maximized or are maximizing their potential. Examples are sport, art, science, and medicine - but professions nonetheless. Taking nothing away from this exemplary research, expert performance also appears to have an association with the mental health, and the social and professional participation for people with disabilities. Here is where deaf individuals, or individuals with a LD, can offer contemporary science a greater understanding of human potential. Instead of using expert knowledge for a profession alone, successful individuals with a disability are likely using additional specialized skills to maximize their professional, social, and romantic potential. Explicitly: psychosocial skills specific to dealing with disability-related challenges. This expert knowledge may, in turn, be instrumental to the individual maintaining and sustaining their healthy mental well-being over time. But how is this potential operationalized on a daily basis?

Everyday psychosocial skills specific to identifying, circumventing, or mastering disabilityrelated challenges appear to be a specialized form of tactic knowledge. Also known as practical intelligence, tactic knowledge defines an individual's competence in everyday realworld settings (Sternberg, 1985, 1988). According to Wagner and Sternberg (1986), tactic knowledge is "(1) practical rather than academic, (2) informal rather than formal, and (3) usually not directly taught" (p. 54). Tactic knowledge also regards managing the self, managing others, and career management. Management of the self connotes knowledge of conducting daily tasks efficiently and how to maximize one's own productivity through self-initiative (Wagner & Sternberg, 1986). Management of others refers to tactic knowledge which tailors and assigns tasks that utilizes the strengths and minimizes the weakness of others, and also how to cooperate with others generally (Wagner & Sternberg, 1986). Management of career includes tactic knowledge of what is valued in the workplace, how to convince others of your work's value, and how to sustain a good reputation (Wagner & Sternberg, 1986).

Individuals with high practical intelligence are skilled at absorbing tacit information and then utilizing that information in every day contexts (Sternberg, 2003). Practical intelligence is also used by individuals to shape to their environment and to also adapt to the needs of others. Experience plays a crucial role in the acquisition of, and effective use of, practical intelligence (Sternberg, 2003). Through the use of creative or synthetic intelligence, an individual undertakes a challenge – or a new type of problem – by incorporating the new knowledge with their pre-existing knowledge (Sternberg, 1985). They will then sift purposeirrelevant from purpose-relevant information, synchronize this selected information into a plausible whole, and then act on this evaluation. It is by successfully dealing with what Sternberg (2003) calls 'relative novelty' that an individual becomes skilled to the point of 'relative familiarity.' Having acquired the experience through practice, an individual will likely become so familiar with a process of a task that their actions will be automatic. When

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lesser acceptance of deafness-related psychosocial problems. Onset of deafness places certain demands on an individual's cognitive capacity. The tactic knowledge they acquired and executed as a 'hearing person' prior to their deafness is not enough; mastery of a new additional set of deafness-specific tactic knowledge is required for their potential to be maximized. One example of a deafness-specific skill is speech-reading - a learned skill that

Many hearing parents of deaf children have additionally reported stress and anxiety regarding the increased social demands during their deaf child's adolescence (e.g., difficulties with group conversations and fitting in a social group) (Hintermair, 2006; Hyde et al., 2009). Polat (2003) further found that deaf participants with deaf parents were better adjusted than were deaf participants with hearing parents. Hintermair additionally reported that deaf mothers were less stressed than were hearing mothers of deaf children. Reported high stress levels in the hearing mothers may be a consequence of them not having access to, or possessing, knowledge of the skills required to identify, circumvent, or master deafnessrelated psychosocial challenges. Hearing parents typically 'start from scratch' with little or no pre-existing experience of deafness. Deaf parents, by contrast, have first-hand experience of deafness. They are therefore more likely to be conversant and resourceful with deafnessspecific knowledge to instruct and nurture their deaf children than are hearing parents. For example, Meadow-Orlans (1990) observed that deaf parents tend to grant their deaf children independence and are less anxious to about their child's ability to navigate the world. As Ericsson et al. (2006) reasoned, expert tuition is essential for the nurturing of specialized performance. Polat also speculated that hearing parents may exert "strong parental control which reinforces passivity rather than active exploration" (p. 331) in their deaf children. Active exploration links with Sternberg's (2003) idea that experience is necessary for the

Several studies report varying degrees of social skills functioning and social participation in children with CIs (Bat-Chava & Deignan, 2001; Bat-Chava Martin, & Kosciw, 2005; Punch & Hyde, 2011). Cochlear implantation in profoundly deaf people brings their hearing capacity into the speech range and has been found to improve their social interaction (Hogan et al., 2001). While cochlear implantation can improve a deaf individual' speech retention, it does not necessarily translate directly into improved social participation (Punch & Hyde, 2011; Leigh et al., 2009; Schorr, 2006). For example, Schorr found that children implanted at older ages were more likely to report loneliness, were slower to adjust, and had difficulties achieving feelings of belongingness at school than were children implanted at earlier ages. Despite an improved hearing capacity gained through a CI, the individual may have preexisting maladaptive behaviors associated with their deafness. However, Bat-Chava et al. report that developmentally delayed deaf children had achieved significant progress in ageappropriate development of communication, socialization, and daily living skills after years of hearing aid or CI use. According to the authors, deaf children's communication and social skills may be improved through CIs. Another possibility is that deafness-specific tactic knowledge develops over time through practice. According to Ericsson et al. (1993),

deliberate practice is time consuming but essential for expert performance.

Findings in de Graff and Bijl's (2002) study indicated that the improvement of communication skills in a variety of situations could help avert mental health problems in deaf adults. Books by Glickman (2008) and Hogan (2001) contain a diverse range of

takes much practising, and therefore time, to master (Arnold, 1997).

acquisition and optimal functioning of tactic knowledge.

such mastery occurs, the individual will have the mental resources for coping with new challenges associated with the process or task. It is through active risk taking and continual interpersonal engagement that individuals develop tactic or practical knowledge in diverse social settings. Otherwise, successful social or professional participation cannot occur (see Sternberg & Wagner, 1986). Individuals who avoid engagement, or to overly seek protection in parents, an organization, or peer group, are more likely to experience negative cognitive and social outcomes when confronting adversity (Sternberg, 1988). The reason: they have not practiced or developed the psychosocial skills necessary for optimal functioning. As Kentish (2007) noted, parents who shelter their deaf child from emotionally or socially awkward situations (e.g., as an interpreter or negotiator) can compromise their child's opportunities, and therefore ability, to develop coping skills. Parental overprotection can result in the child remaining dependent, passive, and socially immature.
