Development of a short-form screening index for severity of brain damage in older children

This article reports the development of a Short-Form Screening Index (SFSI) for severity of brain damage based on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) subtests. The new measure is compared with the Neuropsychological Deficit Scale for Older Children, a 45-variable summary measure from test scores derived from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for Older Children. A sample of 20 normal and heterogeneously brain-damaged children (12 boys and 8 girls) between the ages of 9 and 14, who had been administered the complete Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for Older Children and WISC-R, were selected from case records. The Older Children's Neuropsychological Deficit Scale and a simple total of scale scores of the selected Performance subtests of the WISC-R were computed for each participant. The SFSI is based on the Performance scale subtests. The hit rate was obtained for agreement on level of severity for the SFSI and the Older Children's Neuropsychological Deficit Score (i.e., 75% or 15/20 correct agreement).