The suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban black South African secondary school students

Assessment is a central issue in neuropsychology. It assists in clarifying the initial diagnosis, in delineating areas of preserved function which may be exploited in rehabilitation and in determining the effects of therapeutic intervention objectively. In norm-referenced assessment an individual’s performance is evaluated in terms of other people’s performances. An important issue in this regard is the equivalency of the reference group and the testee in terms of such factors as educational opportunities, socio-cultural and economic background, demographic characteristics, sex and age. These factors are of particular relevance for the South African situation, where, dealing with the legacy of an apartheid system, equivalent acculturation across the diversities c f society cannot be assumed. The diagnostic capacity of neuropsychological measuring instruments is based on a high degree of discriminant validity, and interpretation in the light of norms established for other groups may be misleading. The present study, which was conducted m two phases, questions the suitability o f norms, usually derived from groups in other countries, and published for selected tests with a neuropsychological emphasis, for the assessment of black South African urban high school students. In Part I of the study 100 students, 20 from each standards 6 to 10 at a Soweto high school were assessed on subtests selected from the Individual Scale for African Language Speaking Pupils, Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised, the Rey-Gsterreith Complex Figure Test, tile Bender Gestalt Test, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, a Spatial Memory Task, the Trail- Making Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Stroop Colour-Word Test and the Draw-a- Person task. Results suggested that the acculturation variables lowered the measured performBKc for this group, compared to the North American and European standard. Thus, misdiagnosis could occur should the internationally published norm standards be implemented in the interpretation of an assessment conducted on a child from a milieu similar to that of the test group. Part II o f the study focused on the establishment of a norm standard. An additional 152 Sowetan scholars between the ages of 13 and 15 years and in approximately their 8lh year of formal schooling, were assessed.on a similar test battery. It wasi concluded that; investigations such as this one are needed, on an ongoing basis, for all sectors of South African society if the South African practitioner is to provide i rii/ibie neuropsychological assessment for the diversity of tiie South African populace