Psychological assessment of a group of cerebral palsiedchildren with hearing impairments

Abstract

Test Adaptations IT IS ESSENTIAL that the intellectual abilities of hearing impared children should be assessed by means of non-verbal or performance tests and not by verbal tests of intelligence. On the other hand it could well be argued that cerebral palsied children are at a disadvantage when asked to manipulate performance material. The psychologist attempting to assess a cerebral palsied child with impaired hearing is, therefore, in something of a dilemma. An attempt was made to find an escape from this dilemma by remaking the performance material of a number of tests in such a way that the manipulative component of the items was reduced to a minimum, while the cognitive component was unaffected. The Leiter International Performance Scale, for example, in its standard form is presented by means of a frame to which are attached card strips of designs. The child's task is to place in the appropriate positions of the frame a set of 1 in wooden cubes by reference to the design attached to one face of the cubes. In the early stages of the tests the task is a one-toone matching of design on the cube to design on the card strip, but at higher age levels more subtle relationships between the designs on the block and on the card strips are introduced. The manipulative element of this test may be demanding for young children without physical handicap and for older ones with problems in the control of hand movements as the blocks are a tight fit in their respective stalls. The solution was to use larger format wooden tablets, half an inch thick, instead of the cubes and a larger frame with tapered stalls into which the tablets could be slid. Far less manipulative precision was required to locate the tablet in the desired stall than had been the case with the cubes. The Hiskey Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude consists of a number of subtests some of which require the child to pick up and place picture cards appropriately. The picking up of such cards sometimes causes difficulty for the physically handicapped. A similar expedient was adopted to overcome this problem as that used in the adaptation of the Leiter Scale. The pictures were attached to 1⁄2 in thick wooden tablets and a frame was made into which the tablets could be slid when making the required match. Finally an enlarged formboard version of the Raven's Coloured Matrices was made. This test is normally given by asking the subject to point to the correct response. Where subjects have poor control of hand movements it is not always possible to tell which response is being made. A form-board version with large pieces overcomes this problem. The accepted material was compared for level of difficulty with the standard material using groups of subjects attending ordinary nursery and primary schools. In no case was there found to be any significant difference between scores on the standard tests and the adapted tests. It was therefore concluded that the adapted material measured essentially the same cognitive functions as the standard material while at the same time presenting fewer manipulative problems to physically hdndicapped children.