An investigation into the performance of a group of Durban Indian school children on the Wechsler intelligence scale for children.

Abstract

Interest in this research was stimulated as a result of analysing performance of a group of Durban Indian school children, referred to the Durban Child Guidance Clinic as possible cases for remedial education, on A.E. Maxwell's abbreviated form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The research describes results of applying the full WISC to a carefully selected group of 72 Durban Indian school children in upper junior school levels, and its aims, besides general description of the results of the group and of subgroups, were to investigate Verbal and Performance scale results of the group more fully and to determine whether the abbreviated WISC in question possessed satisfactory validity for the group tested. The experimental group was found to perform significantly better on the Verbal than on the Performance scale of the WISC, in agreement with results of analysing abbreviated WISC profiles of the Durban Clinic sample, and also in agreement with results of research in which modified Wechsler tests had been applied to youngsters in India. Relative to Performance ability, Verbal ability appeared a more integrated dimension of intellect for the present Indian group. Possible reasons for the WISC pattern obtained were sought within the literature and it was felt that the result could be ascribed largely to cultural background factors. Evidence also suggested the applicability of the WISC to the sample studied, and it was felt to be a suitable scale for the measurement of Indian intelligence, at least in the interim before an individual scale standardised for South African Indian children is devised. Abbreviated WISC results of the group, derived by means of Maxwell's method, were examined, and there was reason to believe that as far as validity was concerned, there was room for improvement. Alternative abbreviated forms of the WISC, with possible usefulness for Indian children of similar background to the present-sample, were accordingly suggested for further research.