Multivariate Analysis of the WISC Scales for Blind and Sighted Children

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the WISC verbal IQ in terms of subtest scores for blind and sighted children. It was hypothesized that subtest variability would be sufficiently different to support a significant discriminant function discriminating blind and sighted groups equated on WISC verbal IQ and age. D2 was significant at the .05 level ( F = 6.38, df = 6/107). Blind and sighted groups were distinguished by Information, Similarities, and Digit Span. The results indicated that future studies of the predictive validity of the WISC with blind children should use individual subtests as variables rather than the single verbal IQ measure.