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Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI)
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence
Classification
Supplemental - Highly Recommended: Congenital Muscular Dystrophy (CMD)
 
Highly recommended for psychological and neuropsychological CMD studies for ages 6 years and up.
 
Recommended for other types of CMD studies as a way to characterize the study population.
 
Supplemental: Epilepsy, Mitochondrial Disease (Mito), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Myotonic Dystrophy (DM), Neuromuscular Disease (NMD)
Short Description of Instrument
The WASI is a quick, reliable measure of intelligence for use in clinical, educational, and research settings. It delivers an estimation of a student's general intellectual ability by measuring the verbal, nonverbal, and general cognition of individuals from 6 to 89 years of age.
 
The WASI is nationally standardized, yields the three traditional Verbal, Performance, Full Scale IQ scores, and is linked to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children®--Fourth Edition (WISC-IV®), and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale®--Third Edition (WAIS®-III). The WASI provides you with more information than you can typically receive from other brief intelligence tests.
 
The WASI consists of four subtests; two verbal (Vocabulary and Similarities) and two nonverbal (Block Design and Matrix Reasoning).
 
Administration: Paper-and-pencil, individual, face-to-face, requires examiner training.
 
Completion Time: Four-subtest form, 30 minutes; two-subtest form, 15 minutes.
 
Publication Date: 1999.
 
Ages / Grades: Individuals 6:0-89:11.
 
Norms: Standardization data were collected from a large nationally repre- sentative sample of children and adults from 6 to 89 years. Research data link the WASI with WISC-IV and WAIS-III in order to increase its clinical utility.
Comments/Special Instructions
The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence® Second Edition, a revision of the WASI™, provides a brief, reliable measure of cognitive ability in clinical, educational, and research settings. WASI-II maintains the original format and structure but offers greater clinical utility and efficiency. Guidance to use the WASI-II in telepractice see: https://www.pearsonassessments.com/content/dam/school/global/clinical/us/assets/telepractice/guidance-documents/telepractice-and-the-wasi-ii.pdf
Scoring and Psychometric Properties
Scoring: Scores: VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQ scores.
Scoring Options: Hand scoring.
MVIC testing can be measured in Newtons, kilogram-force or pounds-force
 
Psychometric Properties:
Rationale/Justification
This section is required for Supplemental - Highly Recommended and Core recommended NOCs and optional for Supplemental recommended NOCs
 
Strengths: Provides a quick but reliable and valid estimate of IQ when administration of a full battery is not feasible or necessary; particularly useful for research applications; easy to learn and administer.
References
Key Reference(s): Wechsler, D. (2008).
 
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (4th ed., WAIS-IV). Pearson.
Wechsler, D. (2011).
 
Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (2nd ed., WASI-II). Pearson.
 
Wechsler, D. (2014). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (5th ed., WISC-V). Pearson.
 
Document last updated October 2024