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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b

Psychometric Testing Report Types


The basic format for a WISC/WAIS series report should be as follows :

1. Standard letter head for your service (To begin with usually service + contact details followed by details of the person you are communicating with) 2. Psychometric Assessment Details (Patient and Assessor Details) Name: Bushra Balqees Date of Birth: 19/11/1994 Current Address: 18 Gulber II Lahore Date of Assessment: 03/08/2012 Age at Assessment: 15 years 9 Months Test administered by: Abeer Nasseem (Assistant Clinical Psychologist)

3. Purpose of Assessment (This should include details of why you conducted a psychometric assessment, so something like the following) A psychometric assessment was carried out to assess Bushras cognitive ability and from this to identify whether Bushra has any key areas of strength and weakness. 4. Presentation During Testing (Details of the childs/ individual,s physical and emotional presentation during the testing procedure. A good source for this is the back page of the testing booklets which is labelled behavioural observations. This should include any notes on presentation which you think are of interest and could have impacted on the scores
Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
obtained e.g. willingness, any visual/motor problems, unusual behaviours and sometimes more general observations such as if a person appeared to know answers but was struggling to verbalise them correctly etc. All these factors can be relevant when determining the individual validity of the test. An example is below) Bushra's assessment was completed on 3rd August 2012; the appointment took approximately 1 hour. Bushra presented as a polite and engaging young woman. She appeared at ease with the testing process and did not appear to suffer from nervousness or anxiety. Bushra took one short break during the testing procedure. She tried to answer every question given to her and attempted every task, this would suggest that the results are a good reflection of her true abilities. 5. Test Administered (This section serves two main functions, the first is to give a brief explanation of which test you used to complete the testing, what makes up the test as well as providing the first set of information about the test. This should include the full scale IQ (FSIQ), percentile rank and any other significant details about the OVERALL test score, such as if there had been a significant difference between subscale scores and therefore you could not calculate the FSIQ or if you had used the General Ability Index (GAI) instead. This should also include details of any diagnostic ramifications of the test, for example if the person falls within the learning disability range. An example is below.) WISC-IV UK (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) Bushra was assessed using the WISC-IV. This is a test of intellectual ability used with children. The WISC-IV examines functioning on a range of subtests, which make up four index scores. The four index scores are the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI), the Working Memory Index (WMI), and the Processing Speed Index (PSI).
Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
Bushra obtained a Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) of 50; this is within the extremely low range of ability. Bushras FSIQ falls below the 1st percentile (<0.1; this is to say she achieved the same as or less than 1 in every 1000 children of a similar age). There was no significant difference between her visual and verbal skills. The ICD-10 (World Health Organisation) classifies an IQ score of 50 as on the cusp between Mild and Moderate learning disabilities. (The second major function of the section is as the main body of your report. Following on from the FSIQ details, you should create subsections which outline the four indexes you have mentioned above, Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI), the Working Memory Index (WMI), and the Processing Speed Index (PSI). Within each section there should be the following: The composite index score and percentile rank The general range of ability demonstrated by this score An explanation of what the index is designed to test i.e. which cognitive areas does this index examine How the persons scores could impact on the cognitive areas you have described IF there have been significant differences between the subtests within the index, it is often helpful to give a full explanation of the different subtests within the index and give greater detail on the desired subtest, for example if someone scored particularly poorly on a block design test, you would give the individual scores for the subtests, explain that block design was low in comparison and explain exactly what block design is designed to assess, these will be similar to others in the index but also individual to that subtest. Example below:)

Processing Speed Index Score (PSI) The PSI is composed of subtests measuring the speed of mental processing. In addition to this the tasks involved in providing this index score tap visual memory, visual motor-coordination, visual scanning and attention and concentration.

Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
Bushras PSI score was 83, placing her on the 13th percentile. This is within the low average range. Her individual scaled subtest scores were as follows: Coding: 5, Symbol Search: 9, an average score on these subtests would be 10. Bushra demonstrated a significant cognitive weakness on the Coding subtest (in comparison to his other subtests). This would suggest that Bushra may have particular difficulties with his short term memory and possibly with copying down visual information.

Summary and Conclusion of the Test Results (This section will include 3 main subsections: Summary of Results, Recommendations and Conclusion, which I will break down individually)

(Summary - The first subsection serves to summarise your report, as realistically the majority of readers will skim over your detailed middle section, reading only your introduction and FSIQ section and then skipping to this section for bullet points. This should include a FSIQ reminder, any diagnostic implications and also any points of particular interest that have been identified by the report, for example a very poor verbal ability in comparison with other indexes)

Summary of Results Bushra has a full scale IQ score of 50 which places her in the extremely low range of ability. The ICD-10 (World Health Organisation) classifies an IQ score of 50 as on the cusp between Mild and Moderate learning disabilities. Bushra demonstrated global cognitive difficulty across verbal and non-verbal tasks. Bushras verbal abilities are significantly poorer than her visual abilities. She
Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
demonstrated difficulty in terms of her ability to reason verbally in relation to social, everyday situations.

(After this you will move onto making recommendations which best suit the individual and their cognitive profile, this could be nothing, as they have done excellently in all areas and you do not feel you can offer advice to improve their cognitive support, or it could be a full page list of bullet points which give exact requirements of the person and details which services should now be contacted for involvement. For arguments sake I will write an example as if the latter situation has occurred and the person needs significant support. Your recommendations should at all times be drawn from accurate and reasonable ways in which the cognitive profile you have discovered for the person can be aided. You should never simply enter things because they might be useful. For example I know an assistant who got into hot water for adding Bushra will benefit from praise and encouragement for any achievement she makes simply because they presumed everyone would benefit from praise and encouragement. A statement like that should be based on evidence, for example the person responding well to praise and encouragement during the testing procedure.) Recommendations There are various different strategies that will help to enhance Bushras understanding and ability to learn new skills: Bushra may benefit from a speech and language assessment with particular focus on her expressive language abilities. In order for Bushra to achieve her full potential she will require a high level of support and prompting. Information should be presented to Bushra clearly, using simple to understand language. When doing tasks or talking to Bushra, try to reduce other distractions (e.g. turn the TV off, make sure she has your attention).
Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
Be prepared to show Bushra how to do things more than once, it may take several times before she remembers it. Use prompts such as picture cards/written sequences of tasks. Use reminders such as calendars or diaries to list events that are going to happen. Use daily reminders to help her remember what he needs to do that day. It is important to check that Bushra has understood what is expected of her. It would be helpful for Bushra to have instructions broken down, step-by-step, to help her learn new skills Bushra may be more able to pick up and learn new skills from having things demonstrated to her first. Bushra will have difficulty understanding abstract concepts such as time, value of money and emotions and she will therefore find it difficult to organise her time. She would benefit from using a diary or calendar to help familiarise her with days and months. In addition, an easy to use timetable will help her remember where/what she is supposed to be doing. Visual prompts (e.g. pictures and diagrams) may help Bushra to learn new skills. Using positive behaviour management strategies (e.g. praise and rewards) will be effective in encouraging Bushra to learn and develop new skills.

(The conclusion is perhaps the trickiest of sections to pin down for an exact description of what goes where. The conclusion should be a sort of overall summary for the report and a reflection on what is needed. This section is not always required and is more down to individual style. Below is an example of a short conclusion.) Conclusion Bushras performance in the WISC-IV assessment has highlighted significant cognitive difficulty in terms of both visual and verbal skills. Bushras cognitive difficulties may also negatively impact upon her self-confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, Bushra will require a high level of support in order for her to learn new skills, cope with the demands of everyday life and develop her confidence and selfesteem.
Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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PSYCHOMETRICS II MPSY525b
(The report should then provide your name and title as well as (if applicable) the name of the person who supervised you to write the report. If you are not a fully qualified member of staff, or in some cases even if you are, I would always advise having someone check over your report and advise you where required. I have been conducting psychometrics and writing the reports for around 2 years now and the input of a qualified psychologist, whilst lessening over time, is always invaluable. A final sentence should also be added as follows:) 'This report is private and confidential, and may not be reproduced either whole or in part without the permission of the author'

Appendix 1 (Lastly the report should have an appendix which details ALL the raw scores for the test, including all subtest and subscale scores)

Enjoy writing many a psychometric report

Raumish Masud Khan Assistant Professor Department of Applied Psychology Kinnair College For women Lahore

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