An adaptation of the "Wechsler Intelligance Scales (Performance) for Children-Revised" for the deaf

The intellectual assessment of hearing impaired children typically includes administration modifications of the WISC-R. I Presently, modifications are left to the individual psychologists, making the reliability and validity of these idiosyncratic alterations open to question. This study developed and assessed the impact of a standardized procedure upon the WISC-R Performance Scales used with the deaf.

With the development of a standardized procedure for administering the WISC-R to deaf children, this study attempted to provide evidence related to two theoretical positions. One position views the deaf as intellectually normal, the other as cognitively different. . The most contemporary orientations within the cognitively different position are the Myklebustian Organismic Shift Hypothesis and the Experiential Deficits Theory. The Organismic Shift Hypothesis and Experiential Deficits Theory are explanatory constructs which seek to explain the presumed cognitive differences between deaf and hearing children. The former attributes these differences directly to a sensory loss whereas the latter attributes differences to experiential deprivation induced by the sensory loss.

Approximately 130 protocols resulting from the use of "An Adaptation of the 'Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised' for the Deaf" were analyzed. These protocols were submitted by approximately 23 psychologists representing over 20 states. . The psychologists tested prelingually deaf (70db loss) children who had no other physical handicaps. The protocols were analyzed to determine if the subtest scores as well as the overall performance Iq differed significantly from the scores obtained by hearing children on the Wechsler standardization.

The general findings provide evidence that the deaf child's scores.:on the WISC-R do not differ significantly (p<.O1) from that of the Wechsler norms for hearing children. A peculiar subtest profile was detected and found to be significant (p<.O5). Analysis of the data suggests that this profile can best be explained by the Experiential Deficits hypothesis. Suggestions were made that future investigations should center around assessing the intelligence of deaf children of deaf parents, since this population showed a significantly higher overall IQ and no peculiarities of profile.