Administration time estimates for Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐IV subtests, composites, and short forms

Abstract

The administration times for Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) subtests, indexes, and the Full Scale IQ were recorded for 57 school children. Also determined were administration times for eight short forms and the General Ability Index (GAI). All eight short forms reduced testing time by >50%, but the GAI required approximately 56 minutes. The time to administer the 10 core subtests that yield the Full Scale IQ and index scores averaged 72 minutes (range = 42 to 100), but 31% of the administrations required 80 minutes or longer. These results indicate that administration times are quite variable and that D. Wechsler's (2003) guideline of 65 to 80 minutes can be misleading for certain settings and for specific examinees. The present research found administration time to be positively correlated with examinee age, grade placement, and Full Scale IQ. In addition, the extent of examiner experience is known to be positively related to administration speed. In the present research, as in many settings, the examiners were competent, but not highly experienced.

Management of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disability in an African Setting

“…The Wechsler Scales are commonly most used in intellectual disability services since they seem to be simple and were administered with no difficulty. Indeed they allow the evaluation of verbal comprehension with items on vocabulary, similarities, comprehension, information, word reasoning, perceptual reasoning with items on block design, picture concepts, matrix reasoning, picture completion and working memory with requests on digit span, letter-number sequencing and arithmetic (Ryan et al, 2007). At the other end of the spectrum, pervasive support, or life-long, daily support for most adaptive areas, would be required for profoundly retarded persons.…”

Assessing the accuracy of the WISC-IV seven-subtest short form and the child and adolescent intellectual disability screening questionnaire in identifying intellectual disability in children

“…Guralnick, 2005). The full diagnostic assessment for ID is, however, time consuming (Ryan, Glass, & Brown, 2007) and may place considerable burden on the patient. It is, therefore, desirable to be able to screen for potential 'at risk' individuals before referral for a full diagnostic assessment.…”

Estimating the level of functional ability of children identified as likely to have an intellectual disability

“…Many children, however, may not be identified as having ID until they are teenagers (Simonoff et al, 2006) or even young adults (Hamilton, 2006). One potential reason for this is that diagnosing ID can be complex and time consuming (Ryan, Glass, & Brown, 2007). The assessment of intellectual functioning, in particular, can cause delays in the diagnostic process because it requires the use of a standardised and validated assessment that is individually administered by an appropriately qualified applied psychologist (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2000).…”