Toward Inclusive Social Cognition Assessment: Validating a Unified Battery for Hearing and Deaf Children

The Social Cognition Battery (SCB) was validated as an inclusive tool for assessing social cognition (SC) in hearing and deaf children, addressing cross-cultural gaps. Participants included 154 hearing (M age = 8.10, SD = 1.56) and 30 deaf children (M age = 9.80, SD = 1.97) from Latin America. Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a unifactorial SC structure (RMSEA = 0.069, CFI = 0.962) with high reliability (ω = 0.753). Age predicted SC in hearing children, while school year better explained SC in deaf children. ROC analysis (AUC = 0.8126) confirmed strong discriminative ability. The SCB is a reliable, culturally adapted tool for diverse populations.