Application of German WISC-IV in children with diverse cultural and linguistical backgrounds

Certain aspects of the use of the German WISC-IV in clinical and pedagogical assessment of children with diverse cultural and linguistical backgrounds are discussed. Matched data of children from immigrant families were compared with data from German-speaking children. The highest differences were found in the verbal subtests and the verbal comprehension index. Furthermore, the article describes age-dependent differences regarding cognitive performance. The results of the present study suggest the usefulness of providing intensive German training. The WISC-IV can be seen as an indicator for the degree of adaption into the requirements of society (see PISA study). In clinical-diagnostic questions, cognitive abilities should be assessed with a non verbal test in addition.