Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC): Foundational child IQ test

About the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

By the late 1940s, the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (1939) had become the dominant US adult intelligence test, displacing the Stanford-Binet in most clinical practices. But children needed a different instrument: the Wechsler-Bellevue items were too verbally demanding and culturally adult-oriented for use with school-age children. David Wechsler set out to create a children's version.

The 1949 WISC covered ages 5-15. It had the same Verbal + Performance structure as the Wechsler-Bellevue, with 12 subtests grouped into Verbal Scale (Information, Comprehension, Arithmetic, Similarities, Vocabulary, Digit Span) and Performance Scale (Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement, Block Design, Object Assembly, Coding, Mazes). The Picture Arrangement, Coding, and Mazes subtests were specifically designed for children.

The WISC went through revisions in 1974 (WISC-R), 1991 (WISC-III), 2003 (WISC-IV), and 2014 (WISC-V, current). The current WISC-V covers ages 6 to 16:11 and reports five composite scores: Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed. The WISC family has been administered to hundreds of millions of children worldwide over the past 75 years. It is the most-used child IQ test in the world and is the standard instrument for school giftedness identification, learning disability diagnosis, and pediatric neuropsychological evaluation.

The 2 subtests

Source

All test materials and historical content on this page are transcribed from:

WISC, WISC-R, WISC-III, WISC-IV, and WISC-V are under Pearson copyright. We document the test's history and significance.