A Rapid Screening Test for Intelligence in Children: A Preliminary Report

Introduction THE NEED for a brief, reliable test for intelligence is experienced by anyone attempting to practice comprehensive pediatrics. Faced with a large number of perplexing problems in the behavioral, educational, and psychological spheres, the physician wishing to render good total patient care is compelled to include in his assessment an appraisal of intellectual adequacy. Unfortunately, such estimates based on experience alone have been shown to predict a test score only "25% better than a random guess." 1 Reluctant to accept such limited accuracy, the pediatrician has been forced either to do without this information or to request one of the formal intelligence tests. Because these are time consuming, costly, and require the services of a trained clinical psychologist, there is a tendency to refrain from requesting them unless the clinical situation makes it mandatory. In order to avoid such a tendency, the pediatrician may profitably employ a simpler procedure