A Comparison of Intellectual Structure in Deaf and Hearing Children

Results on the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test for 251 deaf children and 101 hearing children in Israel revealed that (a) the factor structure for the total deaf group differs from that of the hearing group, (b) differences in cognitive structure were evident by age level for the deaf, (c) differences exist between the cognitive structures of hearing and deaf subjects of the same age, and (d) a similar abstract thinking component is found for younger hearing and older deaf subjects. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of both their theoretical and methodological implications for reaching a better understanding of the intellectual development of deaf children.