WISC IV Administration

1. WISC IV Administration

2. General Testing Guidelines You must become familiar with: Test materials Administration procedures Starting points Reversal rules Discontinue rules Use of the stopwatch Querying Prompts Item repetition Recording responses Scoring

3. Physical Conditions Minimum distraction (no one else should be in the room, unless required for accommodations in administration) Good ventilation Good lighting Comfortable furniture of appropriate size Materials not being used should be kept out of sight but within easy reach Record form should not be readable by the examinee but avoid self-conscious efforts to conceal materials Stimulus book is always laid flat in front of the examinee

4. Physical Conditions

5. Establishing and Maintaining Rapport Administration guidelines and instructions must be followed closely A cooperative relationship is essential Use an accepting, non-threatening, natural conversational tone Encourage interest in the tasks Test administration is much more task-oriented than counseling Maintain control of the situation in a pleasant and professional manner Keep the process moving to prevent boredom and fatigue In order to assure smooth, efficient administration without awkward pauses the examiner must be familiar with all administration procedures Administration should be presented in a professional but unhurried manner Transitions should be smooth and uninterrupted Manuals include transition statements and these may be elaborated upon to help put the examinee at ease (but elaboration of subtest instructions is not allowed)

6. Establishing and Maintaining Rapport The examinee may be allowed to complete a task after the time limit to maintain motivation, however, scoring must be based upon the time limit Assess the examinee’s mood, activity level and cooperativeness and intervene with Brief conversation Convey enthusiasm Praise and encourage effort (but do not give feedback on the correctness of a particular response) Encourage if an examinee doesn’t attempt a response Reassure the examinee that they will likely find some questions to be very difficult and that it is common for people to miss items on the test Allow short breaks if necessary but only at the end a subtest WISC IV may be completed in two sessions, preferably within one week

7. Testing Examinees with Physical, Sensory or Language Impairments Examiner must be aware of and consider any impairments in administration and interpretation Knowledge of impairment is necessary before administration Accommodations in administration may be made It is the responsibility of the clinician to interpret the effect of any deviation from standardization methods Any accommodation must noted on the record form

8. Testing Children for Reevaluation Purposes Potential problem of practice effects with repeated testing

9. Testing Children for Reevaluation Purposes Some research with previous editions of the Wechsler intelligence scales has indicated that practice effects On Performance (now Perceptual Reasoning) subtests are minimal after 1-2 years On Verbal (now Verbal Comprehension) subtests, that interval is approximately 1 year If a retest is necessary after a short time interval then supplemental subtests that were not used in the initial evaluation may be substituted This is particularly important for subtests in the Perceptual and Processing Speed domains because they show the greatest practice effects

10. Test Children at Each End of the Age Range Age 6 Below average ability use WPPSI or other tests Average or above ability use WICS-IV Age 16 Average or below average ability use WISC-IV Average or above ability use WAIS-III

11. Order of WISC-IV Subtests Core Subtests Block Design Similarities Digit Span Picture Concepts Coding Vocabulary Letter – Number Sequencing Matrix Reasoning Comprehension Symbol Search Supplemental Subtests Picture Completion Cancellation Information Arithmetic Word Reasoning

12. Starting, Reversing, Discontinuing and Stopping Pass – full or partial credit on a multipoint item Perfect score – maximum score obtainable, excluding bonus points Full credit – maximum number of points including bonus Failure – score of zero

13. Starting Starting point First item to be administered Varies with age of examinee Begin with the lowest start point with children suspected to have mental retardation If child passes the first two items at their age-appropriate start point they receive full credit for all preceding items Some subtests may have sample or practice items that are always administered LNS has qualifying items for younger children to determine if the subtest should be administered

14. Reversing Criterion items Start point and the following item that require perfect scores to establish basal level Reversal items Items that precede the start point If perfect score is obtained on criterion items then full credit is given for all reversal items If examinee does not obtain a perfect score on both criterion items then Administer reversal items in reverse order Until a perfect score is obtained on two consecutive items including a perfect score on the start item Award full credit for reversal items not administered Proceed with subtest until discontinue criterion is met

15. Discontinuation Discontinuation criterion is a specified number of consecutive failures Items administered in reverse sequence count toward the discontinue rule If you are unsure if an item has been failed then continue to administer items until you are certain that discontinuation criterion have been met Items administered past the stopping point are awarded no points even if answered correctly

16. Recording Responses Each of the child’s responses should be written verbatim for each item administered. This provides: Additional qualitative data for analysis Opportunity to review accuracy of scoring Examiner’s observations of child’s behaviors should be noted Examiner’s comments should also be noted

17. Timing Timing should be done discreetly Work may be allowed beyond time limit but receives no points Timing begins when instructions are complete and continues when the examinee asks for clarification or for a problem to be repeated Timing stops when the child has completed their response If there is no time limit allow sufficient time (10-30 seconds) Depends on the child’s previous response speed Encourage child to respond If no response then move on to the next item. If the examinee is unable to respond, then use a transitional phase such as “Let’s try the next one” or “That’s a hard one, let’s try something else.”

18. Repetition of Instructions or Items Instructions or questions may be repeated upon request for several of the subtests If repetition is not allowed tell the child “Just take your best guess” If examinee responds “I don’t know” to an item and then correctly answers more difficult items on the same subtest you may re-administer the earlier item if you believe the examinee knows the answer (this would not be appropriate for performance such as Block Design, Picture Arrangement, Object Assembly) If they gave an incorrect answer on an earlier item you may readminister to determine if they knew the correct answer, however, you may not change the score Urge examinee if they quit before the time limit or say “I don’t know” and you may repeat the question Note repetition on the record form with an “R”

19. Teaching and Practice Items Many subtests provide practice items for the child to complete before the actual scored items are administered. Other subtests (e.g., VOC and INF) do not have specific practice items, but corrective feedback is providing in initial teaching items to ensure the child’s understanding of the task. Corrective feedback, where allowed, occurs after a child’s response and does not change the score The purpose of teaching and practice items is to ensure that the child’s performance is based on their ability to perform the task and not influenced by their understanding of what is expected on the task

20. Queries Ambiguous or incomplete responses that cannot be scored may be queried with “Explain what you mean” or “Tell me more about that” If a child spontaneously gives multiple responses that differ in quality then ask them to specify one Answers marked with a “(Q)” in the manual should be queried Do not query responses that are clear enough to determine a score Queries are not to be used to improve the persons score, for example, a clearly 1 point answer should not be queried Indicate a queried response by recording a “Q”

21. Prompts Used to teach or remind the child of the task Allowed prompts are included in the administration instructions Indicate a prompt with a “P”

22. Common Administration Errors Timing errors Failure to record examinee responses, circle scores, or record times Not repeating instructions verbatim Failing to question when required by test manual Questioning examinee inappropriately Over-prompting Failure to reverse Mishandling the stimulus materials