VERBAL AND NONVERBAL SKILL DISCREPANCIES IN CHILDREN WITH HYDROCEPHALUS - A 5-YEAR LONGITUDINAL FOLLOW-UP

Compared verbal and nonverbal skills of 65 children ages 5 to 7 years, with a history of shunted hydrocephalus (n = 26), arrested hydrocepha lus (n = 11), and no hydrocephalus (n = 28), over a 5-year period. Com parison of these skills in 4 assessments revealed poorer average nonve rbal than verbal skills on measures from the McCarthy Scales of Childr en's Abilities, the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and composites of neuropsychological skills for the shunted hydrocephalus group in comparison to the arrested-hydrocephalus and no hydrocephalus groups. There were higher rates of significant discrepa ncies between WISC-R Verbal IQ (Vie) and Performance IQ (PIQ), with PI Q < VIQ in the shunted group. However, relatively few children exhibit ed significant discrepancies on multiple test occasions. The poorer pe rformance of the shunted hydrocephalus group could not be attributed t o motor demands of the nonverbal tasks.