The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children

This psychological assessment test is a useful tool for studying cognitive abilities.

Psychological assessment includes among its variants the assessment of intelligence, and this has been especially important in the field of childhood. Here we will talk about the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children..

This evaluates not only the child's knowledge, but also how he/she processes information, that is, his/her processing style, which can be sequential or simultaneous. We are going to know the characteristics of the battery and what components it evaluates.

Kaufman's Assessment Battery for Children: features

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children), also called K-ABC, was designed by Kaufman and Kaufman in 1983.

It comprises a series of tests that measure intelligence and academic performance.. It is applied to children between 2.6 and 12.5 years of age, and its theoretical foundation is based on cognitive and neuropsychological models.

This battery is interested in the style and type of processing of the subject rather than in the final result. In other words, it focuses mainly on information processing.

The subscales included in the battery are five: sequential processing, simultaneous processing, mental processing, cognition, and the nonverbal scale.. Let's get to know them in detail.

Scales of the battery

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children includes two types of global scales. Let's see what they are.

Mental Processing

It measures intellectual functioning, that is, the type of information processing used by the subject. the subject uses. It encompasses two types of processing: sequential and simultaneous. The scale represents the integration of these two processing styles.

Its measurement provides a good overall estimate of mental processing ability or intelligence; according to the authors themselves, "intelligence is complex and probably the most intelligent behaviors result from an integration of sequential and simultaneous processes".

1.1 Sequential processing

Measures the child's ability to solve problems whose elements are presented successively, one after the other.one after the other. The stimuli are related temporally and linearly with the preceding ones. This type of processing is composed of three subtests, and requires analytical, successive or serial skills.

1.2. Simultaneous processing

Evaluates the subject's ability to synthesize the information necessary to solve the problems presented. The different stimuli have to be integrated and synthesized simultaneously to reach the appropriate solution.

It consists of 7 subtests and requires holistic or gestalt skills.

2. Academic knowledge

This scale evaluates the knowledge and skills acquired at school or, more informally, in the environment. In other words, it is intended to measure the knowledge acquired and the level of school learning..

Non-verbal scale

The battery also includes a non-verbal scale for children with hearing difficulties or language problems.. This scale is composed of different sequential and simultaneous processing subtests. The subtests are grouped in three blocks by age:

• Between 2 and 4 years old.The subtests are grouped in three blocks by age: Between 2 and 4 years old: includes face recognition tasks, hand movements and triangles.
• From 5 years of ageincludes the tasks of hand movements, triangles, analog arrays and spatial memory.
• Between 6 and 12 years oldincludes the tasks of hand movements, triangles, analogous arrays, spatial memory and photo series.

The non-verbal scale can be administered through gestures, using a minimum of verbal instructions; in addition, it is also answered through gestures.

Scores and interpretation

The battery uses IQ (Intelligence Quotient) scores. To get an indicative idea of your scores, an IQ of less than 85 is indicative of an IQ score, an IQ of less than 85 is indicative of impairment (this would be 1 standard deviation below the mean).

Each item of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children is scored with 0 or 1. On the other hand, there is no bonus or "plus" for responding quickly, although there is only one test with a fixed response time, the triangles test. Nor are points obtained if an item is partially answered or solved..

In the Spanish adaptation of the test, the manual offers tables that allow transforming the direct score into scalar scores, centiles and equivalent ages.

On the other hand, the subtests of the mental processing scale have a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3; those of the academic knowledge scale, on the other hand, have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15..

Kaufman's K-BIT

In addition to the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, there is another battery oriented to perform a first screening, of quick application and easy correction.. It measures two types of intelligence: verbal and non-verbal.

Its age of application is from 4 years old to 90 years old. This test is an excellent measure of general intelligence, which includes two subtests:

• Vocabulary: expressive vocabulary and definitions.
• Matrices: abstract drawings and figures (eliminates cultural influence).

Bibliographical references:

• Kaufman, A. & Kaufman, N. (1997). Battery of evaluation of Kaufman for children [Batería de Evaluación de Kaufman para Niños]. Madrid: TEA.
• Cohen, R.J., Swerdlik, M.E. (2002) Psychological testing and assessment. McGraw-Hill. Madrid.
• Matos, M.A. and Mustaca, A.E. (2005). Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD): its assessment in Argentina. INTERDISCIPLINARIA, 22,(1), 59 - 76.
• Amador, J.A., Forns, M. and Kirchner, T. (2006). The Kaufman assessment battery for children: K-ABC. Working paper. Faculty of Psychology - University of Barcelona.