Review of intellectual assessment measures for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

OVERVIEW: Intellectual assessment of children who are deaf or hard of hearing presents unique challenges to the clinician charged with attempting to obtain an accurate representation of the child's skills. Selection of appropriate intellectual assessment instruments requires a working knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the measure and what changes in standardized administration might be necessary to accommodate for the needs of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In the case of some available instruments, there is limited guidance and objective research available examining the performance of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This review summarizes available information on widely used and most recent editions of intellectual assessment measures with special attention to guidance on accommodations, score interpretation, subtest selection and other test-specific considerations when assessing children who are deaf or hard of hearing. SUMMARY: There is much opportunity for further inquiry in the field of intellectual assessment as it applies to children who are deaf or hard of hearing, as many measures have not been closely scrutinized for their appropriate use with this population. Clinicians must recognize inherent difficulties with intellectual assessment measures with children who are deaf or hard of hearing and issues in providing for an accessible and accurate administration of test items.

It is not just stress: parent personality in raising a deaf child.

This study examined the impact and predictive ability of parental personality and perceived stress on behavior problems of their deaf child. One hundred and fourteen parents with a deaf child completed measures of personality, parenting stress, and child behavioral functioning. Higher parental neuroticism, which reflects a susceptibility to emotional and psychological distress, significantly predicted greater internalizing behaviors in younger deaf children, whereas higher levels of parenting stress and lower levels of parental conscientiousness were strongest predictors for externalizing behaviors. For older deaf children, higher levels of parental openness to experience predicted higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Results suggest a complicated interaction between parent personality and stress related to child adjustment, with implications for professionals working with parents of deaf children.

Assessment of processing speed in children with mild TBI: a "first look" at the validity of pediatric ImPACT.

UNLABELLED: Deficit in the speed of cognitive processing is a commonly identified neuropsychological change in children recovering from a mild TBI. However, there are few validated child assessment instruments that allow for serial assessment over the course of recovery in this population. Pediatric ImPACT is a novel measure that purports to assess cognitive speed, learning, and efficiency in this population. The current study sought to validate the use of this new measure by comparing it to traditional paper and pencil measures of processing speed. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-four children (71% male) age 5-12 with mild TBI evaluated in an outpatient concussion clinic were administered Pediatric ImPACT and other neuropsychological test measures as part of a flexible test battery. RESULTS: Performance on the Response Speed Composite of Pediatric ImPACT was more strongly associated with other measures of cognitive processing speed, than with measures of immediate/working memory and learning/memory in this sample of injured children. CONCLUSIONS: There is preliminary support for convergent and discriminant validity of Pediatric ImPACT as a measure for use in post-concussion evaluations of processing speed in children.