Built from brain research, not item types
The Kaufmans developed it in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and American Guidance Service published it in 1983 for ages 2½ to 12½.2,4 It focused on the processes needed to solve a problem rather than whether the content was verbal or nonverbal.3
Order, then pattern
First, arrows appear one at a time; repeat them in order. Then a grid lights up all at once; tap the cells that were lit. Three trials of each, getting longer.
Two games made up for this page to show the idea. They aren't K-ABC subtests, and one attempt says nothing reliable about how you process information.
Smaller gaps, sharper questions
It produced smaller than usual score differences between African American and European American children, which made it particularly useful for assessing children from different ethnic groups.3 It was also especially informative about nonverbal ability.8
2004: two theories in one test
The KABC-II kept Luria's model and added the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of broad and narrow abilities, giving it two ways to interpret the same scores.6,3
One encyclopedia dates the revision to 2002; the publisher's reference record and most sources give 2004.8,5
References
- [1]Kaufman assessment battery: topic page with ERIC records (incl. Kaufman & Kamphaus 1984; Ochieng 2003; Caruso & Witkiewitz 2002). Science.gov.science.gov
- [2]Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children—Second Edition (KABC-II). In Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer.link.springer.com
- [3]Wikipedia contributors. Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (accessed 30 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org
- [4]Application of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children to the study of individual differences (chapter, with references to the 1983 K-ABC manuals). Springer.link.springer.com
- [5]Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children—Second edition (KABC-II), 2004. ResearchGate record.researchgate.net
- [6]Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. In Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics. SAGE Reference.sk.sagepub.com
- [7]Neurodevelopmental assessment of children in Uganda and Malawi: protocol NCT03878147 (reference list). ClinicalTrials.gov (PDF).cdn.clinicaltrials.gov
- [8]Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. Gale Encyclopedia, via Encyclopedia.com.encyclopedia.com
- [9]McGill, R. J. Exploratory higher order analysis of the Luria interpretive model on the KABC-II school-age battery (preprint, PDF).rjmcgill.com
Related historical tests
The WISC-R split tasks into verbal and performance. The K-ABC split them by mental process instead, and was even used to reanalyse WISC-R data through the same Luria-Das lens.
Both batteries scored achievement separately from ability. The Woodcock-Johnson later adopted CHC theory, which the KABC-II also took on in 2004.
Cattell tried to remove culture from the items. The K-ABC approached fairness differently, through processing tasks that produced smaller group gaps.
The original children's Wechsler set up the verbal/performance split the K-ABC moved away from.
Wechsler's preschool scale covered much the same young ages as the K-ABC's lower end, from 2½.
A group reasoning test for schools. The K-ABC was one-to-one, and it was built around processes rather than verbal, quantitative and nonverbal content.