A comparative study of the performance of English and Xhosa speaking children on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the WISC-R subtest score scatter patterns and obtain preliminary normative data on the WISC-R Adjunctive tests (Digit Span Forward; Digit Span Backward; Digit Supraspan; Coding Immediate Recall and Coding Delayed Recall) on a non-clinical population of South African English (n= 15) and Xhosa (n= 12) speaking, standard six children, studying in English medium schools. Tests were administered to 27 subjects, both male (n=19) and female (n=8), with a mean age of 14.1 years (range = 13.3-15.3). The results show that White English speaking children outperform Black Xhosa speaking children on Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs and all subtests, but that these differences tended to disappear when Full Scale IQ and school grade average were controlled for. No subtest score scatter was present for either group although more specific test items appeared to be more difficult for Xhosa speaking subjects and may have contributed to generally lowered scores. Results suggest that caution must be employed in assigning Xhosa speaking South African children to absolute IQ categories. However, the WISC-R has validity for diagnostic use on both White English speaking and Black Xhosa speaking South African children as there was no evidence of a significant Verbal IQ/Performance IQ discrepancy, or significant low subtest scatter for either group. Normative tables are presented for the use of WISC-R Adjunctive tests.,KMBT_363,Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in