Validity of the TONI-2 with deaf and hard of hearing children.

The test of Nonverbal Intelligence, 2nd edition (TONI-2) is a quick, practical measure of cognitive functioning. Its concurrent, construct, and predictive validity as an instrument and its utility with deaf and hard of hearing children were explored in this study. Results obtained from research with 27 deaf and hard of hearing children of elementary school age indicated a positive, moderate correlation between the TONI-2 IQ and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 3rd edition (WISC-III), Performance IQ, supporting concurrent validity. Construct validity was established by significant correlations between the TONI-2 and five of six WISC-III subtests. The TONI-2 had predictive value for Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) spelling and mathematical problem-solving and reasoning tasks.

Toward greater understanding of depression in deaf individuals.

We compared the prevalence of depressive symptoms among deaf and hearing college students and examined the relationships among depressive symptoms, personality characteristics, and perceived parental attitudes and behaviors in these two groups. Measures were revised to meet the language needs of the deaf subjects. Mild levels of depressive symptoms were more prevalent in the deaf than in the hearing students, but more severe depression was not. In both groups, depressive symptoms were associated with perceptions of lower maternal care and higher maternal over-protection. Deaf and hearing subjects did not differ on these perceived maternal characteristics. Depressive symptoms were associated with socially dependent personality characteristics in the hearing sample only. We discuss the implications of the findings for the role of personality development in depression in deaf individuals.

Modification of the Beck Depression Inventory for use with a deaf population.

Research on depression in deaf individuals has been hampered by difficulties in assessment that result from the linguistic problems many deaf persons have with the English language. We report preliminary psychometric data on a modification of the Beck Depression Inventory in which it was simplified linguistically for use with the deaf population. Internal consistency of the revised version of 56 hearing college students was good and very close to that of the original version in a separate sample of 56 hearing students. Mean scores on the two versions were also very similar. Internal consistency of the revision in a sample of 102 deaf college students was moderately good, but lower than in the hearing sample. The results are considered encouraging for further instrument development.