Variation in testing procedures and goals resulting in prorated score combinations or single indices can reduce time or increase testing time to three or more hours for an extended battery, including all primary, ancillary, and complementary indices.
This means that a 16-year-old adolescent who has an intellectual disability may be tested using the WISC-V so that the clinician may see the floor of their knowledge (the lowest level).
Three complementary index scores are available to measure cognitive processes that are important to achievement and are sensitive to specific learning disabilities.
Evidence of construct validity was provided through a series of factor-analytic studies and mean comparisons using matched samples of special group and nonclinical children.
Some practitioners use the WISC as part of an assessment to diagnose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities, for example.
Other patterns for children with learning disabilities show a similar lack of usefulness of the WISC as a diagnostic tool.
[3] Although, when Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory is used to interpret the WISC–V subtests, things tend to make a great deal more sense.[how?]
When diagnosing children, best practice suggests that a multi-test battery, i.e., multi-factored evaluation, should be used as learning problems, attention, and emotional difficulties can have similar symptoms, co-occur, or reciprocally influence each other.
In short, while diagnosis of any childhood or adult difficulty should never be made based on IQ alone (or interview, physician examination, parent report, other test etc.
for that matter) the cognitive ability test can help rule out, in conjunction with other tests and sources of information, other explanations for problems, uncover co-morbid problems, and be a rich source of information when properly analyzed and care is taken to avoid relying simply on the single summary IQ score (Sattler, Dumont, & Coalson, 2016).
If a child's achievement is below what would be expected given their level of intellectual functioning (as derived from an IQ test such as the WISC-IV), then a learning disability may be present[citation needed].
believe that the WISC can be used to understand the complexities of the human mind by examining each subtest and can, indeed, help in diagnosing learning disabilities.
Subsequently, the WISC can be used as part of an assessment battery to identify intellectual giftedness, learning difficulties, and cognitive strengths and weaknesses.
When combined with other measures such as the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System–II (ABAS–II; Harrison & Oakland, 2003) and the Children's Memory Scale (CMS; Cohen, 1997) its clinical utility can be enhanced.
Using such comparisons with other sources of data, the WISC can contribute information concerning a child's developmental and psychological well-being.
[6] WISC has been translated or adapted to many languages, and norms have been established for a number of countries, including Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Arabic, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Croatian, French (France and Canada), German (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), English (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia), Welsh, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Korean (South Korea), Greek, Romanian, Indonesian, Slovenian, Hebrew and Italian.
India uses the Malin's Intelligence Scale for Indian Children (MISIC), an adaptation of WISC by Arthur J.
[7] However, the norms of MISIC are outdated (have not been updated since 50 years) and many Clinical Psychologists do not use this test in their practice due to possible errors in measured IQs because of Flynn effect.
Instead of MISIC, the fourth edition of WISC that was adapted and standardized for India in 2012, is more commonly accepted and used by clinicians.