Graduate Program

School Psychology

Degree Name

Specialist in School Psychology

Semester of Degree Completion

1995

Thesis Director

Judy Oehler-Stinnett

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Form J (ITBS-J) and the Cognitive Abilities Test, Form 4 (CogAT-4) with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Third Edition (WISC-III) in order to establish a better method for predicting premorbid intellectual functioning in children with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) aged 6 through 11 years. The subjects included 73 children in grades one through six from four elementary schools within a rural city in southeastern Illinois. The results of the study supported all six hypotheses: The CogAT-4 and ITBS-J significantly predicted the variability observed in WISC-III scores; the ITBS-J Vocabulary, Reading, and Language Skills Composites correlated moderately with WISC-III VIQ, FSIQ, and VCI; the Mathematics Composite of the ITBS-J correlated moderately with the WISC-III VIQ and FSIQ; the CogAT-4 Verbal and Quantitative scores correlated moderately with WISC-III VIQ and FSIQ; the CogAT-4 Nonverbal score correlated moderately with the WISC-III PIQ; and lastly, the combination of the ITBS-J Composites along with the CogAT-4 scores better predicted WISC-III FSIQ by accounting for more total variance than either of the tests alone. Regression equations and standard error of estimates are offered for predicting WISC-III VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQs, and VCI, POI, FDI and PSI Factor scores from the CogAT-4 and ITBS-J together, and the ITBS-J alone with children in grades one through six, aged 6 through 11 years, and with children in grades two through six, aged 7 through 11 years. Separate regression equations and standard error of estimates are presented for predicting WISC-III VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQs, and VCI, POI, FDI and PSI Factor scores from the CogAT-4 alone for children in grades one through six, aged 6 through 11 years. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that using the CogAT-4 and/or the ITBS-J to predict the various WISC-III scores is the best method currently available with which to predict premorbid cognitive functioning in children of this grade and age range, from this area, suspected of having a loss of functioning as a result of TBI.

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