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General Testing Guidelines. You must become familiar with:Test materialsAdministration proceduresStarting pointsReversal rulesDiscontinue rulesUse of the stopwatchQueryingPromptsItem repetitionRecording responsesScoring. Physical Conditions. Minimum distraction (no one else should be in the room, unless required for accommodations in administration)Good ventilationGood lightingComfortable furniture of appropriate sizeMaterials not being used should be kept out of sight but within 30050
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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