Nonverbal intellectual assessment of Hispanic and speech-impaired adolescents

A comprehensive new nonverbal cognitive battery (Leiter-R) was given to examine the nonverbal cognitive performance of adolescents, ages 11 to 21 from majority and nonmajority (Hispanic) ethnic backgrounds. A total of 258 Euro-American (non-Hispanic) and 62 Hispanic adolescents composed the ethnic-contrast samples (81% Euro-American vs 19% Hispanic). Also, the study used the Leiter-R to contrast the cognitive performance of speech-impaired adolescents with typical children, ages 11 to 15. There were 203 without and 21 with speech impairments. The speech-impaired contrast sample was comprised of Euro-American (75%) and African-American (25%). This sampling provided direct comparisons equated for ethnicity. Small effect size differences (.11) were found on 3 of the 10 nonverbal subtests of the Visualization and Reasoning battery of the Leiter-R between Euro-American and Hispanic adolescents and the speech-impaired contrasts (effect size difference of .17). The Leiter-R exhibited potential for ethnic fairness in assessment. Further, promise for unbiased assessment of speech-impaired adolescents was provided. Fairness of assessment was especially evident for speech-impaired adolescents on the "visual" subtests of Picture Context, Matching, and Form Completion.