The Reliability and Validity of WISC-IV Scores With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Abstract

The present study examined the reliability and validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) for use with deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HOH) children. Psychologists ( n = 10) provided data for 128 D/HOH children who were assessed with the WISC-IV as part of routine assessments. All the WISC-IV subtests (8) and indexes (2) examined had split-half internal consistency coefficients that were higher ( p < .05) than the values reported for the normative sample. The mean Perceptual Reasoning Index ( M = 93.21) and Verbal Comprehension Index ( M = 80.86) for D/HOH children were lower ( p < .05) than the population mean ( M = 100). Of the 44 inter-subtest correlations calculated, 29 were significantly greater than zero. The results support the reliability of the WISC-IV scores for D/ HOH children, although the findings suggest that the Perceptual Reasoning Index may have a different meaning than Performance IQ for D/HOH children.