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The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI–III) is an IQ test used with young children. It is normed for administration to children from 2 to 7 years of age. The test is done one on one with a psychologist . Scroll down for suggestions as to how you can help your child prepare for this test.
Like other IQ Tests the WPPSI is designed to measure skills and abilities, rather than grade-level subject knowledge. Testing is done one on one with a psychologist who should have experience with making your child comfortable with the testing situation. The total amount of time needed for testing varies. A good tester will spend time establishing a raport with your child. They want your child to do their best so that the test score has meaning. Most testers will allow for breaks between subtests as necessary. Younger children may be tested in more than one session. These factors, your child's personality and ability all factor into how long testing will take. That said 2 hours is a common amount of time to allow.
Many parents contact us hoping for information which they can use to familiarize their child with what they can expect when they're tested. The WPPSI is confidential. Public knowledge of question specifics would change the expected outcomes and reduce the usefulness of the test. Part of the test protocol is to see how children will do when presented with problems of a type they haven't seen before. Every child is in the same situation. The test is unfamilar to everyone. If your tester thinks that your child has been exposed to test specific preparation material (apart from Aristotle Circle workbooks we don't sell test specific material) they may choose not to proceed with testing.
That said the Educational Review Board (ERB) uses a subtest of WPPSI tests as part of their testing process for private school admission. Testing fever in New York has lead to the development of test specific preparation materials. Aristotle Circle publishes the Complete Pre-K and Kindergarten ERB/WPPSI-III Practice Workbook and Block Set . This contains detailed information on the eight WPPSI subtests used in the ERB with hundreds of practice questions. They have an additional Picture Completion Subtest Workbook (Picture Completion is part of the WPPSI but not usually part of the ERB). There is also a ERB/WPPSI™-III Practice Test available. Aristotle Circle material is expensive. You're paying for insider knowledge.
Apart from the obvious good nights sleep one of the best things you can do is expose your child to opportunities to work on lots of different problems. This is not a test with a defined curriculum which a child can study for. Preparation in the traditional sense doesn't make sense. What does make sense prior to testing, and throughout our children's lives, is to teach them how to think and problem solve. Children who can make connections and understand their own thinking processes learn faster and retain more. It's a benefit for life. Because the WPPSI is such a wide ranging test you'll see long lists of potential products which you can use with your child in anticipation of testing. Instead of feeling overwhelmed choose two or three things that your child will enjoy doing at a level that you think will challenge them. The range of products we sell were all selected because they develop thinking. Choose from what we sell and you can't go wrong.
There are 14 subtests on the WPPSI. Within each of the subtests the questions get more difficult as the child progresses. The format questions are presented in may change too. Subtests continue until a child gets three questions in a row wrong. Once this happens the subtest is over and the tester moves on to the next subtest. The scores from the various subtests are then combined to get an IQ. This is worth restating because many parents used to standardized multiple choice tests have difficulty understanding this. The test is the same for children from 2 to 7. Score is determined by how many questions your child gets correct in each subtest before they get three in a row wrong and your childs age. Younger children don't have to answer as many questions correct as older children to get the same IQ score but if your young child is brilliant in a particular area they'll have an opportunity to demonstrate this and it will pull up their overall score.
The WPPSI- III is composed of 14 subtests.
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Block Design - While viewing a constructed model or a picture in a Stimulus Book, the child uses one- or two-colour blocks to re-create the design within a specified time limit.
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Information - For Picture Items, the child responds to a question by choosing a picture from four response options. For Verbal Items, the child answers questions that address a broad range of general knowledge topics.
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Matrix Reasoning - The child looks at an incomplete matrix and selects the missing portion from 4 or 5 response options.
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Vocabulary -For Picture Items, the child names pictures that are displayed in a Stimulus Book. For Verbal Items, the child gives definitions for words that the examiner reads aloud.
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Picture Concepts - The child is presented with two or three rows of pictures and chooses one picture from each row to form a group with a common characteristic.
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Symbol Search - The child scans a search group and indicates whether a target symbol matches any of the symbols in the search group.
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Word Reasoning The child is asked to identify the common concept being described in a series of increasingly specific clues.
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Coding - The child copies symbols that are paired with simple geometric shapes. Using a key, the child draws each symbol in its corresponding shape.
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Comprehension. The child answers questions based on his or her understanding of general principles and social situations.
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Picture Completion - The child views a picture and then points to or names the important missing part.
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Similarities - The child is read an incomplete sentence containing two concepts that share a common characteristic. The child is asked to complete the sentence by providing a response that reflects the shared characteristic.
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Receptive Vocabulary - The child looks at a group of four pictures and points to the one the examiner names aloud.
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Object Assembly - The child is presented with the pieces of a puzzle in a standard arrangement and fits the pieces together to form a meaningful whole within 90 seconds.
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Picture Naming - The child names pictures that are displayed in a Stimulus Book.
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