The standardization of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

Abstract

THE Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children has grown logically out of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scales used with adolescents and adults [4]. In fact, most of the items in the WISC are from Form II of the earlier scales, the main additions being new items at the easier end of each test to permit examination of children as young as five years of age. Even though the materials overlap, the WISC is a distinct test from the WechslerBellevue Scales and is independently standardized. The scales overlap in usefulness since both scales can be used with adolescents. However, it is expected that the WISC will be preferred in testing adolescents up through the age of fifteen years. This new Children's Scale (as it probably will come to be known in every-day clinical parlance) has been standardized with exceptional care over a five-year period of experimental tryouts, field testing, and statistical analysis. In this paper some of the principal research data are reported. The WISC consists of twelve tests which, as in the Adult Scale, are divided into two subgroups identified as Verbal and Performance. In the standardization, there were six tests in each of the subgroups: