Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability as an Instrument in Nondiscriminatory Assessment

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It is not a myth that a growing number of multilingual children enter school in the United States with English as their second language. Most of these children have limited English oral language and reading proficiency (McCardle, Mele-McCarthy, Cutting, Leos, & D'Emilio, 2005). School achievement is lower for these group of children than many other groups and they tend to raise the questions about learning problems and consider special education evaluations. Historically psychologists have used standardized testing instruments to assess and measure ability. The use of nonverbal tests provides an organized way to gather a great deal of information regarding an examinee’s cognitive ability in an efficient manner. Psychologists who work in the United States, particularly in the schools, will encounter a large population of non-English speaking children or whose first language is not English. Among the salient features that identify minority groups are: heritage, a common ancestral language, values, and socioeconomic status. In the case of a Latino population, since many will be assessed for possible placement, they tend to appear to share two features: low achievement and intelligence coefficient scores. This paper analyses the Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability (WNV) as an instrument that adds an explicit commitment to fairness and accurate assessment of a wide variety of individuals (Brunnert, Naglieri, & Hardy-Braz, 2009), even those whose native language is other than English in which this documents puts its emphasis.

I. General Information
Across time we have known people who have been noteworthy in society, Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a couple, ever since written records have been kept. So much discu...

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...Technical and Interpretative Manual, Stimulus Book, 25 Record Forms, 25 Response Booklets, Spatial Span Board, Object Assembly Puzzles, Picture Arrangement Cards, and one pencil, in a large, soft-side carrying case including Wechsler Nonverbal Scoring Assistant.

Works Cited

Brunnert, K. A., Naglieri, J. A., & Hardy-Braz, S. T. (2009). Essentials of WNV Assessment. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E., & Sturman, E. D. (2013). Psychological Testing and Assessment. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
McCardle, P., Mele-McCarthy, J., Cutting, L., Leos, K., & D'Emilio, T. (2005). Learning disabilities in English language learners: Identifying the issues. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 1-5.
Wechsler, D., & Naglieri, J. A. (2006). Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability. San Antonio: Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s).

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