The Reliability and Validity of the WISC-IV 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. The participants, who were psychologists working directly with D⁄HOH children, entered data on D⁄HOH children (n= 128) in encrypted Excel spreadsheets sent via email. Results revealed that 8 of the 10 WISC-IV subtests⁄composites assessed were significantly more reliable (p < .05) compared to the split-half internal consistency reliabilities reported in the WISC-IV Technical and Interpretive Manual (2003) for the normative sample. In addition, the mean Perceptual Reasoning Index (M = 93.21) and Verbal Comprehension Index (M = 80.86) for this sample were significantly lower (p < .001) than the population mean (M = 100). Although the mean Verbal Comprehension Index was not significantly lower than one standard deviation from the mean (M = 85) Interrelationships among the WISC-IV subtests for this sample were assessed through Pearson Product Moment correlations. Of the 44 correlations, 29 were significantly greater than zero (i.e., the 95% confidence interval did not contain zero). Overall, the results support the reliability of the WISC-IV for D⁄HOH children. However, the evidence for the validity of the WISC-IV with D⁄HOH children is inconclusive. Further research is needed to investigate the validity of the WISC-IV (e.g., convergence, test-criterion, factor structure) for use with D⁄HOH children.