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JEROME M.
SATTLER, PUBLISHER, INC. |
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PREFACE
Writing a book is an adventure; to begin with it is a toy and an
amusement, then it becomes a master, and then it becomes a tyrant; and the
last phase is just as you are about to be reconciled to your
servitude—you kill the monster and fling him . . . to the public. —Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
(1874–1965)
Assessment of Children: Cognitive Foundations and Applications,
Sixth Edition, along with the Resource Guide to Accompany Assessment of
Children, Sixth Edition, is designed as both a teaching text and a
reference source for students and professionals. It is a major revision.
Every chapter has been rewritten to make the text more comprehensive,
relevant, readable, up to date, and informative. The text contains new
material on the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ IV COG),
issues related to intelligence, and ethical guidelines related to assessment.
The text also incorporates all of the chapters contained in Assessment of
Children: WISC–V and WPPSI–IV. The Resource Guide to
Accompany Assessment of Children, Sixth Edition provides extensive tables
to help in interpreting the WISC–V, WPPSI–IV, SB5, DAS–II,
and WJ IV COG. It also contains appendixes focusing on laws pertaining
to children with special needs (IDEA, Section 504, and ADA), testifying as an
expert witness, and test reviews. Other useful features of the text include the following: 1. Extensive
coverage of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Scales–Fifth Edition (SB5) and the Differential Ability
Scales–Second Edition (DAS–II) 2. Brief reviews of
13 specialized measures of intelligence, 17 measures of academic achievement,
and 20 measures of receptive and expressive language 3. Tables showing
the estimated WISC–V Full Scale IQs associated with 47 short-form
combinations and one 10-subtest combination 4. Tables showing
the estimated WPPSI–IV Full Scale IQs associated with 41 short-form
combinations and one 6-subtest combination for children between the ages of
2-6 and 3-11 years and 53 short-form combinations and one 10-subtest
combination for children between the ages of 4-0 and 7-7 years 5. Tables showing
the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) abilities associated with each subtest and
index score on the WISC–V, WPPSI–IV, SB5, DAS–II, and WJ IV
COG 6. A chapter on
statistics and psychometric concepts 7. A chapter
discussing the important principles of report writing 8. A checklist for
recording psychological and physical difficulties observed during test
administration and a parallel table explaining each psychological and
physical difficulty that appears in the checklist 9. A checklist for evaluating
Gardner’s multiple intelligences This
edition contains several useful learning aids. These include • A list of major headings (with
page numbers), together with goals and objectives, at the beginning of each
chapter •
A “Thinking Through the Issues” section; a summary
of each major topic; a list of key terms, each linked to the page on which it
appears; and a series of study questions at the end of each chapter •
Checklists for evaluating a student’s competency in administering
the WISC–V, WPPSI–IV, SB5, and DAS–II •
Exercises on report writing •
Report writing principles The text also includes an extensive collection of cartoons
touching on assessment, psychology, and education. The cartoons provide
comic relief and serve as a teaching and learning tool. The assessment process does not begin and end with administering
and interpreting tests. Effective evaluators need to know not only about
assessment instruments, but also about (a) children who are normal, as well
as those with special needs, (b) the ethical and legal guidelines of the
profession, (c) the institutions in which they work, (d) how to communicate
both orally and in writing with children, their parents, their teachers, and
other interested parties, (e) how culture and ethnicity affect the children
assessed, and (f) how to help children. The field of assessment is not free of controversy. Some
question the entire assessment enterprise, claiming that assessment is
not related to how children learn and that assessment fails to provide
intervention guidelines. Many of these critics maintain that current
assessment practices should be abandoned. Certainly current assessment
practices do not provide all that we might want or need, but assessments are
useful. They provide information helpful to children, their parents, their
teachers, and other interested parties. When you have completed your study of
Assessment of Children: Cognitive Foundations and Applications, Sixth
Edition, you will be in a better position to understand the controversies
surrounding assessment and to form your own opinion about the merits of
assessment. As psychologists, we must be mindful of the prominent place that
litigation occupies in American society. Assessment results,
and the decisions reached on the basis of assessment results, may be
questioned by others, who may seek legal recourse to change a diagnosis
or a proposed intervention. Therefore, I strongly urge you to assume that
everything you do has potential legal consequences. The best strategy is to
be prepared. You can do this by following standard assessment procedures
scrupulously, maintaining accurate and complete records, observing the
ethical standards of your profession, and keeping up with relevant research
and clinical literature. Underlying all assessments are a respect for children and their
families and a desire to help children. A thorough assessment teaches us
something about the child that we could not learn from simply talking to
others about the child, observing the child, or reviewing the
child’s records. Assessment makes a difference in the lives of
children and their families, as well as in the lives of the professionals,
including educators, who work with children and their families. Early in my career as a psychologist, I learned that clinicians
must have a “tolerance for ambiguity.” We need that tolerance
today just as we did when the fields of school and clinical psychology were
just beginning. Much remains to be learned about the nature of intelligence
and how best to nurture and assess it, and much remains to be learned
about children with special needs. A companion text, Foundations of Behavioral, Social, and
Clinical Assessment of Children, Sixth Edition, is available that covers
interviewing, observation, functional behavioral assessment, personality
tests, and adaptive behavior rating scales. Our website,
www.sattlerpublisher.com, contains a full table of contents and reviews of
the companion text. Note to instructors: An Instructor’s Manual accompanies Assessment of
Children: Cognitive Foundations and Applications, Sixth Edition. For each
chapter, the Instructor’s Manual contains multiple-choice
questions useful for objective examinations. PowerPoint presentations
highlighting the main points of each chapter, prepared by Sal Massa and
Margaret A. Frenzel, are also available. —Jerome M. Sattler
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