This test assesses intelligence and cognitive ability in children and young adults, and is administered to children as young as 2 years old. The Stanford-Binet Scale grew out of the world's first intelligence scale, created in 1905 by French psychologist Alfred Binet as a means to identify different levels of mental retardation. In 1916 Dr. Lewis Terman, an American psychologist at Stanford University, began revisions on Binet's original scale. Terman's revisions, along with those made by other psychologists after him, led to the current version of the Standford-Binet Scale. The test results in a standard age score, which is derived by comparing the subject's average across various skill areas to the averages of other test takers of the same age. This score is used by trained psychologists to evaluate cognitive strengths and deficiencies.
This series of standardized tests, abbreviated as WAIS, was created in 1955 by David Wechsler, a Romanian-born American psychologist. The WAIS has separate models to measure cognitive ability in children and in adults. There are two versions for children: The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Both versions are used to identify gifted students, to identify students with learning challenges and to make decisions about school placement. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is used to determine job placement, to assess academic aptitude and to uncover mental deficiencies.
Abbreviated as the K-ABC, this test was developed in 1983 by Dr. Alan S. Kaufman and Dr. Nadeen L. Kaufman of the Yale Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine. The K-ABC assesses the achievement and intellectual capacity in children and teenagers, and was specifically designed for preschool children, children who are members of minority groups and children with learning challenges. Psychologists use results from the K-ABC in conjunction with other test results to help determine educational placement, to create education plans for special-needs students and to help with the diagnosis of neurological disorders.