Cultural Validation of Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-IV (Younger Version) in Bangladesh

Abstract

Lack of indigenous instruments creates difficulty to measure early childhood development. Cultural validation is prerequisite for available foreign measures. Very few tools that assess cognitive development of children are culturally appropriate for Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to culturally validate the younger version of Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-IV (WPPSI-IV) to assess cognitive abilities of children in rural Bangladesh. A systematic validation protocol was followed including forward and backward translation, modification of pictures, items, and questions without altering underlying construct. Then psychometric properties were tested by measuring reliability and validity of the WPPSI-IV. The results indicated perfect inter-observer reliability (r = 1), and strong test-retest reliability within an interval of 7 days (r = 0.63 to 0.92) of the WPPSI-IV. We found significant correlations among the subtests of the scales of WPPSI-IV indicating its internal consistency. A total of 107 children was included to test the concurrent validity of WPPSI-IV. Concurrent validity was determined by comparing the WPPSI-IV with Bayley-III and found significant moderate association between them (r = 0.51). Thus, the younger version of WPPSI-IV is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the cognitive ability of children in Bangladesh. This has important implications to reduce the developmental deficit of children in Bangladesh.

Bioresearch Commu. 12(1): 2001-2009, 2026 (January)