Equivalence of remote, digital administration and traditional, in-person administration of the wechsler intelligence scale for children, fifth edition (WISC-V)

Many children in need do not receive the psychoeducational evaluation services they need, with an estimated 15% of all students struggling with attentional or learning difficulties that are unassessed, and thus unaddressed, during "normal" times. Such evaluations have largely halted during the COVID-19 crisis, with questionable psychometrics of usable measures and clinicians largely unprepared to administer them. Remote, online psychoeducational evaluations have the potential to decrease this access problem by allowing for evaluations to continue during the crisis, as well as redistributing (geographically and potentially socioeconomically) evaluators to populations disproportionately without access. The present study evaluated the equivalence of a remote, online administration procedure for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) with traditional, in-person administration. Results revealed no significant differences-and, therefore, method effects-between the full-scale IQ and index scores between the administration procedures. One subtest did reveal a significant method effect, with children performing more poorly on the remote, online version of the test. Although imperfect, the remote, online procedure is a viable alternative for the traditional, in-person administration of the WISC-V, especially during this time of crisis.