The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using the Performance Scale of the WISC to measure validly the intelligence of deaf children. Because pantomime instructions must be used, the authors conclude that the WISC is only a crude measure of intelligence in deaf children. This difficulty, they believe, can be overcome if a correction factor could be developed which would nullify the effects of the pantomime instructions. Under these circumstances, the test "should be doubly valuable in assessing the deaf child's intellectual functioning."
Speech, language, auditory, and intellectual development were tested in 81 fiveyear-old children with one or more of the following high-risk histories: birth weight less than 2500 grams; gestational age less than 38 weeks; SGA; Rh or ABO blood incompatibility; respiratory distress; and hyperbilirubinemia greater than 15 mg%. Tests included the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Templin-Darley Articulation Screening, the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, the Leiter International Performance Scale, audiologic evaluation, and physical examination. Despite normal intelligence, 54% of the children needed special help. Respiratory distress or abnormal birth weight and gestational age led to the greatest incidence of disability. Significant problems were most often noted in auditory and visual figure-ground discrimination and memory, physical examination, expressive vocabulary, and block design. Also noted were difficulties in word finding, articulation, sentence memory, similarities, mazes, sound blending, geometric design, and attention span.
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