Gender Differences in Wechsler Performance Scores of School-Age Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

WISC-III and WISC-R Performance IQs and subtests and WRAT-R scores of 47 deaf or hard-of-hearing school-age children were analyzed to determine whether differences in scores were present as a function of gender. Mean differences were present on the WISC-III and WISC-R Performance IQs, with boys scoring almost a full standard deviation higher than girls, and on the Performance subtests, with boys scoring significantly higher on four of the six WISC-III subtests and four of the five WISC-R subtests. Mean differences between boys and girls were not present on the achievement scores. Discriminant and regression analyses indicated differences between boys and girls in subtests most predictive of the Performance IQ. Hypotheses suggested to account for gender differences were that (a) the factor structure of the IQ measure was different for boys and girls and (b) differential teacher referral patterns were present. Implications of findings for future research are discussed.