IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STANDFORD-BINET THE EXAMINER MUST FIRST ESTABLISH THE BASAL LEVEL.
THIS IS THE Highest age at which all the items are passed. All items below the basal level for a given child are considered passed. The examiner then continues sequentially to administer test items until an age level is reached at which all items are failed by the child; all items above this ceiling level are considered failed. Usually examiner utilizes the child’s score on either the picture vocabulary items (for children five years of age or younger) or the vocabulary items (for children over six years), as a starting point to ascertain the basal age. The mental age is computed by adding the basal age and all additional month’s credit received. The present version of the standaford-binet contains tables which permit the examiner to obtain a deviation IQ by entering the appropriate table with chronological age and mental age. Thus the child can be compared with his peers.
The manual contains verbatim instructions for administration as well as criteria for scoring. Each items is scored on a pass-fail basis as it is administered. Items for children under age six are presented in a gamelike approach with a variety of toys. Most of the items are not timed.
The 1960 revision of the standford-binet used 4,498 subjects of ages two and a half through 18 years. Children who had been individually referred for assessment of some special adjustment problem were not included in the sample. Also included were two stratified samples (100 six-year-old and 100 15-years-old) based on occupational grouping of the fathers. The 1972 standardization program, undertaken to update the norms for the 1960 revision, used a sample of 2,351 subjects. Although earlier norms were limied to the white population of the united states, the 1972 norms include minority children from homes in which English was the primary language spoken.