The WISC-IV

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Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) The WISC-IV is used in schools to evaluate students that are suspected of being gifted or developmentally disabled. The WISC-IV has been used as a tool to diagnose students with intellectual disabilities and specific learning disabilities (IUPUI, n.d.). The WISC-IV can be administered traditionally via paper and pencil, or there is currently an online option available to evaluation teams. The current version of the WISC-IV contains 13 subtests and takes 60 to 90 minutes to complete (IUPUI, n.d.). The test is administered individually, with an administrator present to give the test taker instructions. Reliability scores were examined by computing internal consistency values or test-retest reliability …show more content…

Test- retest scores revealed results that were at a minimum .76, with most being in the .80's (Niolon, 2005). Content Validity was confirmed through reviews by experts and reviewers. Convergent validity scores were all computed to be between .70 and .90 (Niolon, 2005). Ages 6-16 and 11 months The WISC-IV offers evaluation teams numerous positive outcome. The WISC-IV helps identify reading and learning issues at an early age, identifies learning disabilities, helps school make appropriate accommodations, and provides teacher with useful information that can be used in the development of IEP's. Use of the WISC-IV can be costly and requires a highly trained administrator that can interact with children of different ages. The test administrator must be appropriately trained and know how to properly use the test instrument and understand all of the test protocols . The WISC-IV also does not help in the identification of students with IQ's below 70 or above 130 (Niolon, …show more content…

The WISC-IV is intended to provide evaluation teams with an overall intelligence quotient, or full scale IQ, this score is used for placement and identification purposes. The scores of these various subtests are arranged in a way that a score of 100 would be considered an average score (Niolon, 2005). The 10 subtests are summed into four main indexes: verbal comprehension index, perceptual reasoning index, working memory index, and processing speed index (IUPUI, n.d.). The verbal comprehension index assesses a child's ability to listen to questions, draw upon learned information, think through the answer, and finally express their thoughts out loud (IUPUI, n.d.). The perceptual reasoning index assesses the child's ability to inspect a problem and use their visual-motor and visual-spatial skills to organize their thoughts, create an answer and then test the answer. The working memory index assesses the child's ability to memorize new information, store it in their short term memory, and then use that information to produce a reasoning process (IUPUI, n.d.). The processing speed index assesses the child's ability to focus their attention, discriminate between, and then sequentially order visual information (IUPUI, n.d.). The information that is revealed from these indexes will inform the students total

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