eGo Main K-ABC Welcome About the KABC-II Reality Research - Aids / Cerebral Malaria Research by Country Research by Topic Research Reference List Upcoming Events Training Materials ECPA: K-Classic Acknowledgements Visiting the K-ABC Institute Website Administrators Discussion Questions and Comments Home Hello, eGo. Login Discussion Questions and Comments  Questions and comments must be directed to Dr. Fletcher-Janzen. These will then be posted to the institute website for viewing unless otherwise specified. efletcher@thechicagoschool.edu Topic: Basal Rules 07/09/12 Dr. Elaine Fletcher-Janzen: Dear Paul, Interesting question! The operative word here is "consecutive" and the way that the subtest and standardized administration and scoring procedures are intended is that four consecutive items in a row have to be failed before the discontinuation rule is obtained. The reasoning is about the item difficulty levels--perhaps, in this case, she could fail Item 1, but then get Item 2, 3 or 4 correct. Also, the second item is a teachable item and so she could perhaps learn from that teaching and change her responses. If you take the four start-point zeros and use them as the discontinuation rule, then she misses out on the second teaching item and perhaps further correct responses on Items 3 and 4. All in all, it is very uncommon to a 12-year-old to miss earlier items on Gestalt Closure and especially to go back as far as Item 1-and if it is that difficult to establish a basal on this subtest for her then you may want to think about the qualitative aspects of her performance. Does she guess impulsively? Does she squint or turn her head at an odd angle to look at the easel? Does she have atypical responses that suggest reality testing issues? Does she perseverate and have one answer for everything? Is she distressed at not being able to figure out the pictures? Does she have the sustained attention capabilities to focus and figure out what she is observing? There are so many reasons why a child could have difficulty on this subtest!  Thanks for your question-hope this helps! 07/09/12 Dr. Paul Bangirana: I have a question about the KABC administration regarding the basal rules. Consider a child aged 12 doing Gestalt Closure for research purposes. She starts at Item 14 and fails it, I drop back to Item 9, which she fails, drop back a second time to Item 5, which she fails, and then to Item 1, which she also fails. This is 4 consecutive zeros, which is criteria for discontinuing. Is it right to stop at this point and give a zero? - Paul Topic: Standardizing Scores 07/11/11 Dr. Elaine Fletcher-Janzen: The best place to start may be with the publisher (who used to be American Guidance Service but is now Pearson Assessments). The KABC project director is Charles Eberle and he can be contacted at: Charles.Eberle@Pearson.com. Elaine 05/20/11 Kevin Makino:  Hi - I am trying to learn about the K-ABC for a project I am working on, and am hoping for some assistance... The longitudinal dataset I have includes children's scores from the original K-ABC, and I would like to learn more about how scores were standardized in order to help me decide whether to use the standardized or percentile/raw scores. The best reference appears to be the 1983 interpretive manual, but it is out of print - does anyone know how I might get my hands on a copy, or have recommendations for other resources? Thank you very much! Best wishes, Kevin K. Makino kevin_makino@urmc.rochester.edu MD/PhD Candidate Department of Community and Preventive Medicine University of Rochester School of Medicine   Topic: Webinar Training 05/19/11 Visitor: Yes, that would be great 04/21/11 Visitor:  The next webinar topic will be about case studies with the KABC-2 that will illuminate cognitive profiles for autism, asthma, and discussion about learning disabilitites. May 2nd, 2011-- Go to the Pearson website and click in to their webinars webpage. Its' free! 03/04/11 Visitor:  I agree with both previous posts. I'd be very interested in a webinar and so would several of my colleagues in our school district. 02/17/11 Visitor:  Yes I would agree with the previous post on interpretation. I really like using the test and feel it gives me some good results, but I get bogged down trying to figure out what everything means and how it links to specific disabilities or processing problems. I know more people in my district are interested in this instrument, but we would definately need some training on interpretation. Coming from a SB-5 or WISC-IV background, the KABC is very different in the results it gives you. 01/06/11 Visitor:  I know that the school psychologists in my district would be interested in more training on the K-ABC II. We attended a seminar by Dr. Fletcher-Janzen at a state conference and found the information to be very helpful. In particular, more information on test interpretation and linking cognitive strengths/weaknesses with how a child is performing in the classroom would be wonderful.   No Date KABC Institute:  We are thinking about creating webinars for various levels of training on the KABC-II; would you be interested? And if so, what topics would you like to see covered?