Intelligence test

The Merrill-Palmer Scales of Mental Development is an intelligence test for children aged 18 months-4 years that can be used to supplement or substitute for the Stanford-Binet test. Its 19 subtests cover language skills, motor skills, manual dexterity, and matching ability. They require both oral responses and tasks involving a variety of materials including pegboards, formboards, cubes, Kohs design blocks, buttons, scissors, sticks, and strings. The following comprise about half of the Merrill-Palmer scales: the Color Matching Test; Buttoning Test; Stick and String, and Scissors tests; Language Test; Picture Formboards 1, 2, and 3; Nested Cubes; Copying Test; Pyramid Test; and Little Pink Tower Test. The remaining Merrill-Palmer subtests are the Wallin Pegboards A and B; Mare-Foal Formboard; Seguin-Goddard Formboard; Pintner-Manikin Test; Decroly Matching Game; Woodworth-Wells Association Test; and the Kohs Block Design Test. Resistance to the testing situation is taken into account in scoring. The test is accompanied by a detailed list of factors that can influence a child's willingness to cooperate, and refused or omitted items are considered when arriving at the total score, which may then be converted and reported in a variety of ways, including mental age and percentile ranking.

For Further Study

Books

Cohen, Libby G., and Loraine J. Spenciner. Assessment of Young Children. New York: Longman, 1994.

McCullough, Virginia. Testing and Your Child: What You Should Know About 150 of the Most Common Medical Educational, and Psychological Tests. New York: Plume, 1992.

Wortham, Sue Clark. Tests and Measurement in Early Childhood Education. Columbus: Merrill Publishing Co., 1990.