Performance of Ghanaian School Children on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children – Second Edition (Kabc-Ii) – An Exploratory Validation Study

Abstract

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-second Edition (KABC-II) is a foreign psychological test which is increasingly being employed by practitioners in Ghana in the assessment of intelligence and cognitive abilities in children although it has not been locally normed as yet. Thus, the performance of 90 school children in Ghana aged between 6 and 12 years, whose sociocultural backgrounds may differ considerably from those for whom the KABC-II were normed, was investigated in this study. Children aged between 10 years and 12 years 11months performed significantly better than those aged between 6 years and 7 years 11months on all five subscales but only on two subscales when the former age group was compared to those aged between 8 to 9 years 11 months. Children from private schools performed significantly better than those from public schools on all five subscales. On the global indexes, those from private schools performed better on the FCI than the MPI whereas the converse was true for children in public schools. The findings of the study suggest a suitability of the KABC-II as an assessment tool in Ghana. However, the socioeconomic background of the child being examined must be taken into consideration.