Differential ability structure in deaf and hearing children

Abstract

The Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Ability (H-NTLA) is the only individually administered intelligence test designed for use with deaf subjects that has been standardized separately on deaf and hearing samples (Hiskey, 1966). In addition to its popularity among psychological examiners of the deaf (Levine, 1974), the H-NTLA has been favorably evaluated when used with mentally retarded and bilingual children (Lewis, 1969; Shutt & Hannon, 1974). Thus, it is surprising that no factor analytic studies of the H-NTLA have been reported. In contrast to the numerous comparative investigations of the cognitive functioning of deaf and hearing subjects (for reviews see Furth, 1964, 1966, 1971; Vernon, 1968), only three studies have directly addressed the issue of differential ability structure. Farrant (1964) administered a comprehensive battery of ability tests to 120 hearing-impaired children and 120 normal-hearing children. Parallel factor analyses suggested that the intellectual abilities of the hearing-impaired children were "less integrated" and "distorted" relative to those of the normal-hearing children (p. 324). Holmberg (1966) analyzed a battery of tests from selected categories of Guilford’s structure of intellect model for 154 deaf adolescents and found that the factor structure was unlike that of hearing adolescents. The most sophisticated of the reported investigations was conducted in Finland by Juurmaa (1963). Extensive comparisons of the separate factor analyses of a carefully selected battery of tests for 94 hearing-impaired adolescents and 100 hearing subjects matched for age produced the general conclusion that "the ability structure of the deaf is less differentiated than that of the hearing (p. 103)."