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Chapter 31: Child Psychiatry
Table 31.2-4
Commonly Used Child and Adolescent Psychological Assessment Instruments (
continued
)
Test
Age/Grades
Data Generated and Comments
Projective tests
Rorschach Inkblots
3–adult
Special scoring systems. Most recently developed and increasingly universally
accepted is John Exner’s Comprehensive System (1974). Assesses perceptual
accuracy, integration of affective and intellectual functioning, reality testing, and
other psychological processes.
Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT)
6–adult
Generates stories that are analyzed qualitatively. Assumed to provide especially rich
data regarding interpersonal functioning.
Machover Draw-A-Person Test
(DAP)
3–adult
Qualitative analysis and hypothesis generation, especially regarding subject’s
feelings about self and significant others.
Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD)
3–adult
Qualitative analysis and hypothesis generation regarding an individual’s perception
of family structure and sentient environment. Some objective scoring systems in
existence.
Rotter Incomplete Sentences
Blank
Child,
adolescent,
and adult
forms
Primarily qualitative analysis, although some objective scoring systems have been
developed.
Personality tests
Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory-
Adolescent (MMPI-A)
14–18
1992 version of widely used personality measure, developed specifically for use
with adolescents. Standard scores: 3 validity scales, 14 clinical scales, additional
content and supplementary scales.
Millon Adolescent Personality
Inventory (MAPI)
13–18
Standard scores for 20 scales grouped into three categories: Personality styles;
expressed concerns; behavioral correlates. Normed on adolescent population.
Focuses on broad functional spectrum, not just problem areas. Measures 14
primary personality traits, including emotional stability, self-concept level,
excitability, and self-assurance.
Children’s Personality
Questionnaire
8–12
Generates combined broad trait patterns including extraversion and anxiety.
Neuropsychological screening
tests and test batteries
Developmental Test of Visual-
Motor Integration (VMI)
2–16
Screening instrument for visual motor deficits. Standard scores, age equivalents,
percentiles.
Benton Visual Retention Test
6–adult
Assesses presence of deficits in visual-figure memory. Mean scores by age.
Benton Visual Motor Gestalt
Test
5–adult
Assesses visual-motor deficits and visual-figural retention. Age equivalents.
Reitan-Indiana
Neuropsychological Test
Battery for Children
5–8
Cognitive and perceptual-motor tests for children with suspected brain damage.
Halstead-Reitan
Neuropsychological Test
Battery for Older Children
9–14
Same as Reitan-Indiana.
Luria-Nebraska
Neuropsychological Battery:
Children’s Revision LNNB:C
8–12
Sensory-motor, perceptual, cognitive tests measuring 11 clinical and 2 additional
domains of neuropsychological functioning.
Provides standard scores.
Developmental status
Bayley Scales of Infant
Development-Second
Edition
16 days–42
mos
Mental, motor, and behavior scales measuring infant, development. Provides
standard scores.
Mullen Scales of Early
Learning
Newborn–5
yrs
Language and visual scales for receptive and expressive ability. Yields age scores
and T scores.
(Adapted from Racusin G, Moss N. Psychological assessment of children and adolescents. In: Lewis M, ed.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Comprehen-
sive Textbook
. Philadelphia: Williams Wilkins; 1991, with permission.)
Whereas infant assessments rely heavily on sensorimotor func-
tions, intelligence testing in older children and adolescents
includes later-developing functions, including verbal, social,
and abstract cognitive abilities.
Intelligence Tests for School-Age Children and Ado-
lescents.
The most widely used test of intelligence for
school-age children and adolescents is the third edition of the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(WISC-III-R). It can
be given to children from 6 to 17 years of age and yields a ver-
bal IQ, a performance IQ, and a combined full-scale IQ. The
verbal subtests consist of vocabulary, information, arithmetic,
similarities, comprehension, and digit span (supplemental) cat-
egories. The performance subtests include block design, picture
