Understanding Tests

Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, Second Edition (NEPSY-II)

The NEPSY-II is a comprehensive, standardized neuropsychological assessment tool used to evaluate several domains of cognitive abilities. It can be administered to children aged 3 years to 16 years and 11 months and provides norm-based scores in the areas of executive functioning (mental skills are used to complete tasks), attention, language, memory, learning, sensorimotor abilities, visual-spatial processing (mentally moving objects around), and social perception (forming impressions of and make inferences about others). Psychologists use this to learn about a child’s thinking skills, social-emotional skills, and the presence of a learning disability.

-Marit Korkman, PhD, Ursula Kirk, PhD, and Sally Kemp, PhD

Differential Ability Scales, Second Edition Upper & Lower Early Years Battery

This cognitive assessment tool can be administered to children from aged 2 years and 6 months to 6 years and 11 months in the Lower Battery and an Upper Batter that can be administered to children up 17 years and 11 months and provides detailed information about your child’s cognitive functioning. It provides specific information about several areas of a child’s cognitive abilities, including verbal skills, nonverbal problem-solving, and spatial awareness. The combination of these scores provide an overall measures of cognitive abilities referred to as the General Conceptual Ability (GCA) and a nonverbal measure, the Special Nonverbal Composite (SNC). Psychologists use the DAS-II to learn about a child’s thinking skills, memory, processing speed, spatial awareness, and verbal knowledge.

-Colin D. Elliot, PhD

Leiter International Performance Scale, Third Edition (Leiter-3)

This cognitive assessment tool can be administered to children from aged 2 years and 6 months to 6 years and 11 months in the Lower Battery and an Upper Batter that can be administered to children up 17 years and 11 months and provides detailed information about your child’s cognitive functioning. It provides specific information about several areas of a child’s cognitive abilities, including verbal skills, nonverbal problem-solving, and spatial awareness. The combination of these scores provide an overall measures of cognitive abilities referred to as the General Conceptual Ability (GCA) and a nonverbal measure, the Special Nonverbal Composite (SNC). Psychologists use the DAS-II to learn about a child’s thinking skills, memory, processing speed, spatial awareness, and verbal knowledge.

-Gale H. Roid, Lucy J. Miller, Mark Pomplun, and Chris Koch

Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL)

This standardized cognitive assessment measures cognitive and motor abilities in children from birth to 5 years and 6 months and can be used to assess school readiness. It is individually administered with one or both parents present for the administration. It provides specific information on a child’s visual, gross and fine motor, and expressive and receptive language abilities. This measure allows a comparison of language development even in a child who is one to two years old. Visual Reception as a scale is predictive of later cognitive abilities. Normative scores are provided to compare the child’s scores to same-aged peers.

-Eileen M. Mullen

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5)

This cognitive assessment tool can be administered to individuals aged 2 to 85 years old. Psychologists use this to provide information on a child’s logical problem-solving, verbal and nonverbal knowledge, numerical reasoning, working memory, visual-spatial processing, which is the ability to organize information into meaningful patterns and understanding how they change as they move through space. An overall measure of cognitive abilities, referred to as the Intelligence Quotient (IQ), can also be obtained.

-Gale H. Roid

Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test, Second Edition (UNIT-2)

This nonverbal cognitive assessment tool is used to assess individuals from age 5 to 21 who have language or hearing impairments and also individuals who have diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This test provides an overall measure of cognitive abilities, referred to as a Full Scale Battery. Individual composite scores, including memory, analogic reasoning (thinking about similarities through comparison), spatial awareness, and numerical reasoning can also be collected and are used by psychologists to determine your child’s abilities in these areas.

-Bruce A. Bracken, R. Steve McCallum

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC-IV)

This is individually adiministered measure of cognitive ability for those aged 6 to 16 years. Scores are standard scores with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. The WISC-IV has 15 subtests with a core of 10 summarized into four composites including Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. Composites combine to form a Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) which is an overall measure of intellectual ability. A General Ability Index (GAI) can also be calculated utilizing the Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Reasoning scores. This allows for calculation of an intellectual ability without considering working memory and processing speed.

-David Wechsler

Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V)

This is an updated edition of the WISC-IV and also produces standardized cognitive measures of children aged 6 to 16 years and 11 months. It provides information on a child’s verbal comprehension, visual-spatial reasoning, memory, and processing speed. A composite measure known as the Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) is also provided as an overall measure of a child’s cognitive abilities.

-Colin Elliot

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV)

The WAIS-IV is used to assess individuals ranging in age from 16 years to 90 years 11 months. Indices assessed include Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. The WAIS-IV has a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. The WAIS-IV has 15 subtests with a core of 10 summarized into the four composites listed above. Each composite index combines to form the Full Scale Intelligence Quotient which measures overall intellectual ability.

-David Wechsler

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