The Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Fawzia Al Khater, with other officials during the launch ceremony
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has launched the fourth edition of ‘Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children’ to identify children who have difficulties in learning and those suffering from mental and neurological disorders.
The Scale which was launched in cooperation with the Behavioral Health Care Center and Qatar University also aims at measuring and diagnosing the mental capacity of students in ages 6 to 16 years and eleven months, said the Ministry in a statement.
The scale will provide a complete evaluation of the general functions activity (intelligence) as it is used to discover advanced mental development or intellectual disability.
It will also help to find the strengths and weaknesses of cognitive functions, and its results will also help in taking appropriate decisions and guiding the child towards specialised classes or institutions.
The locally customised version of Wechsler assists educationists and clinical professionals in the clinical diagnostic and educational and vocational guidance processes for children and adolescents in the Qatari community.
Before launching, the scale went through several stages that took a continuous period of three years between working on it and applying and modifying it until it was developed in its current form.
The development process includes choosing the appropriate test for codification, providing Wechsler-4 for Children, preparing instructions according to the Qatari environment, choosing an Arabic version of Wechsler (Lebanese or Omani), reviewing the Arabic version and identifying amendment points.
A total of 13 qualified and experienced psychologists were appointed for application and training the entire team (the committee and specialists) to handle properly the ‘Wechsler 4’. The initial application of Wechsler Intelligence Scale was on a sample containing 66 children and the basic application on a sample of 620 students between the ages of 6 and 16 years, taken from all over the country.
The legalization committee consists of several members including Dr. Mamoun Mbayed, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Department at Behavioral Health Care Center and Chairman of the Committee; Dr. Hamda Ahmed AlMuhannadi, Consultant Student Counselor in the Department of School Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education;
Other members are Dr. Khaled Hamad Al-Muhannadi, a psychological consultant at the Behavioral Health Care Center; Dr. Tariq Balaj, Associate Professor of Neuropsychology at Qatar University; Dr. Taha Rabee Taha Adawi, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychological Sciences at the College of Education at Qatar University.
