WISC/WPPSI assessments and school admissions
Who are the WISC and WPPSI designed for?
These tests measure the intellectual abilities of children and adolescents. They are typically used when a learning difficulty, giftedness, developmental delay or intellectual disability is suspected.
Some international schools, such as the École Jeannine Manuel in Paris, also ask for a WISC or WPPSI report as part of their admissions process. This is particularly common when a child is currently being educated abroad.
What does the assessment involve?
The WPPSI is a cognitive assessment for children aged 2 years 6 months to 7 years 3 months.
The WISC is a cognitive assessment for children and adolescents aged 6 years to 16 years 11 months.
Both must be administered in person by a clinical psychologist, using the standardised Wechsler scales.
WISC and WPPSI: a partial picture of cognitive functioning
The WISC and WPPSI are test batteries, made up of a series of subtests that each assess a different aspect of a child's cognitive functioning.
The psychologist's role is to explore the higher cognitive functions that underpin learning. The main focus is reasoning ability, along with auditory and visual working memory, processing speed and visuospatial skills. Fine motor skills, attention and the way the child approaches tasks are also taken into account.
The aim is to identify the child's individual strengths and areas of difficulty.
WISC and WPPSI: IQ tests
The WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and the WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence) are more commonly known as IQ tests, and are recognised worldwide as reference tools for assessing intelligence in children and adolescents.
In practice, however, it is relatively rare to be able to calculate an overall IQ. A valid IQ score requires the results across the different areas to be broadly consistent, and it is quite unusual for a child to perform at the same level in reasoning, working memory, processing speed and so on.
Reducing a child to a single number is not the goal. Any score is relative and will change over time: the brain plasticity characteristic of childhood makes it impossible to predict future cognitive abilities. What matters is understanding where a child stands in relation to their peers at a given point in their development. For example, we can explain whether a child's conceptual reasoning falls within the average range for their age group.
Why do schools ask for this type of assessment?
Some bilingual and international schools have high academic standards and move at a fast pace. To avoid placing children in a situation where they struggle, these schools want to be confident that the students they admit will be able to keep up.
At the same time, they receive applications from children coming from many different countries and education systems. Teaching styles, methods and academic levels vary widely, which makes it very difficult to judge whether a child will cope with a particular school's curriculum.
Faced with this diversity, some schools have chosen to rely on the WISC and WPPSI, which are standardised internationally. Understanding a child's abilities in relation to their peers gives a more reliable indication of how well they are likely to adapt to the school's programme.
How does the assessment work?
Initial meeting
Building a relationship
The first session is mainly about getting to know each other and laying the groundwork for the rest of the assessment. The psychologist meets the child or adolescent together with their parents. It is important for the child to become familiar with the setting and with the person who will be carrying out the tests, so that they feel comfortable and approach the process with confidence.
A child's emotional engagement, motivation and state of mind have a real influence on the outcome. An anxious or unmotivated child will not perform at their best, and the results will not accurately reflect their abilities.
Gathering background information
This first meeting is also an opportunity to learn about the child's academic history and emotional wellbeing.
This step is essential. The aim is to build a complete picture of the child in order to understand and interpret the test results properly. A child's psychological functioning is far too complex to be captured by scores alone: to be meaningful, results need to be read within a clinical context.
Testing
If the family decides to go ahead, appointments are then scheduled for the testing session and for the feedback meeting.
Administration
Testing usually takes around half a day, generally between 2 and 4 hours depending on the child. The pace can be adjusted to the child's level of fatigue and motivation.
Clinical observation
Throughout the interview and the testing, the psychologist observes how the child engages with the tasks and the situation.
This observation is a key part of the assessment. It offers valguable insight into how the child experiences things from their own point of view, and brings out subtle details that help make sense of the test results as a whole.
Scoring, interpretation and report
The psychologist scores the tests, analyses the results and writes a report of approximately 15 to 20 pages. The report is given to the parents and is written in a format suitable for submission to the school.
Feedback meeting
At this stage, the psychologist goes through the written report with the parents and explains the results to both the child and the parents.g
If significant difficulties have emerged during the assessment, the psychologist may:
suggest diagnostic hypotheses
recommend further assessments
recommend an individualised therapeutic plan
suggest educational strategies to put in place at home and at school
The assessment report: a snapshot in time
The assessment is like a photograph of the child's cognitive functioning at a particular moment. The results will naturally evolve as the child develops cognitively, emotionally and socially.
The aim is never to label or define the child. The child remains at the centre of the process, rather than the need to pass judgement on them. The assessment offers a valuable opportunity to connect with the child and listen to them openly, with the sole purpose of helping them better understand themselves.