Individually Administered Intelligence Tests
Individually administered intelligence tests are considered to be one of the most important staples in psychological, clinical, and counseling fields. (Hogan, 2007) To achieve good results during the communication with a person, it is better to combine these tests with some other activities, which may help to gather more information for analysis. It is necessary to admit that individually administered intelligence tests have lots of common characteristics, which have to be taken into consideration, while creating the test.
From the very name of this test, it is obvious that it is individually administered; there should be an examiner, a person, who poses questions and analyzes the results, and an examinee, a person, who answers. It is crucially important that the examinee answer all questions truly to provide the examiner with the chance to present the proper results. Of course, administration of all these tests should be advanced training. One more characteristic of these tests is variety of age and abilities.
It is necessary to determine the age of the examinee in order to create appropriate questions and be sure he/she will answer them somehow. Rapport is another characteristic that has to be considered to make the conversation more friendly. The conversation of between the examinee and examiner should pass in the free-response format. It will help the examinee present questions taking into account personal interests and abilities.
The examiner should also score all the answers immediately. This very characteristic is closely connected to advanced training, where examiners should improve their abilities while testing. The last but one characteristic lies in time limitations. The test should be about one hour. During this very period of time, it is possible to pose enough questions to get a clear picture about the patient’s condition. Final characteristic, a real advantage of such tests, is the opportunity for observation. This opportunity helps to present a concrete report about the individual.
To create a really good individually administered intelligence test, it is also necessary to remember about its trends, like remedial materials, which help to develop individual’s strengths and remediate his/her weaknesses, and attention to test bias that helps to develop the use of the tests because of certain attention to minority groups and people with some disabilities.
Neuropsychological Assessment
A neuropsychological assessment is a kind of activity that helps to improve the condition of a client, who faces some problems with the nervous system. For example, it may be a student at the age of 12. This assessment may take place in the classroom. Before the very process of interviewing the client, it is better to consult this student’s parents and friends in order to get a clear picture about the person, his/her abilities and reactions and gather some. One of the neuropsychological tests that may be used is checking the client’s memory and the reaction to different situations.
It is possible to present several photos with familiar and not familiar pictures of people and places and observe the client’s reaction, and at the end, ask what first picture he/she remembers. Examination of memory’s areas is one of the major steps in the neuropsychological assessment. With the help of the information, gathered from relatives, and analysis of the client’s actions, it is quite possible to start the evaluation of a person and identifying his/her problems.
Reference List
Hogan, T. P. (2007). Psychological Testing: A Practical Introduction. John Wiley & Sons.