An evaluation of the performance of the WISC-IV eight-subtest short form with children who may have an intellectual disability

Background - There has been only limited research into the psychometric properties of short-form intellectual assessments when used with children who may have an intellectual disability (ID). The aim of this study was to evaluate an 8-subtest short form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) in children assessed for ID, which was initially used by Donders and colleagues (2013) with children with traumatic brain injury. Methods - Data from 253 individuals with (n = 94) and without (n = 159) ID referred to clinical services were utilised. Results - At the Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ) cut-off point of 69, the short form had a sensitivity of 0.98 and specificity of 0.89. Conclusion - The short form performed well in discriminating between those with an estimated FSIQ within and outside the ID range. The inclusion of the Letter–Number Sequencing subtest may, however, make it less attractive to clinicians working in ID services.