STUDY OF NON VERBAL IQ AMONG CONGENITALLY DEAF CHILDREN

Background & Objectives: A person’s intelligence depends on his capacity to understand his impulses as quickly as possible and direct his behaviour. Hearing gives a child the acoustic correlates of physical world. The primary consequence of childhood deafness is that it blocks the development of spoken language. However due to cross modal plasticity, when auditory information is unavailable, the brain allocates more of its resources for processing visual information. The Objective of the present study was to test non verbal IQ in congenitally deaf children using Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices and compare its results with those obtained in normally hearing subjects. Materials and Methods: 30 congenitally deaf children and 30 normally hearing subjects aged between 10-14 yrs were tested for non verbal intelligence using Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices. Results: The findings of the present study revealed higher IQ scores among congenitally deaf children compared to their normal counter parts. Conclusion: Since childhood deafness has diverse effects on children’s cognitive development early intervention by restoring the damaged auditory input and the development of all the neuropsychological abilities linked to hearing need to be done