Indications of The Validity and Reliability of The Saudi Arabia Version of The Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC-IV) for Deaf Children Via Sign Language Deaf

Abstract

The current research aimed to identify the indications of the validity and reliability of the Saudi version of the Wechsler Scale-IV (WISC-IV) for deaf children in sign language. The descriptive survey approach was utilized to achieve the research's goals by administering the WISC-IV in sign language to the research subjects (n=107) male and female students from deaf schools in Saudi Arabia ageing (6-11, 16) years. The validity indications of the scale were as follows: the content validity (80%), the construct validity for the values of the correlation coefficients between the sub-tests of the scale and the total score of the main test to which it belongs was higher than (0.30), except for the (Block Design) test related to the intelligence of the (PRI), which was (0.169). This result is considered a positive, non-significant value. The values of (Eigenvalue) for the factorial validity ranged between (6.849 - 0.171). While the discriminant validity of the differences between males and females has been demonstrated to have equivalent levels of intelligence in Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Perceptual Reasoning (PRI), Working memory (WMI), and Processing Speed (PSI). Regarding the indicators of scale reliability, the results showed high indicators of reliability for both the total score and the sub-scales scores. The results of the reliability coefficients by Cronbach's alpha method were (0.784 - 0.873), with a total score of (0.813). The split-half method revealed that the reliability coefficient of Cronbach's alpha for verbal tests was (0.689), and the reliability coefficient for performance tests was (0.793), while the correlation coefficient between verbal and performance tests was(0.805). The Guttman Split-Half reliability coefficient was (0.748). The reliability coefficients for the subscales varied (VCI: 0.657, PRI: 0.698, WMI: 0.947, PSI: 0.925, Total: 0.733), which are significant values at the significance level (0.01). Where the rates agreement method reached (78.2 %).  The research suggests training professionals to recognize the problems related to sign language and the inadequate mental ability of deaf children, as well as conducting research on deaf perceptual intelligence.