ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to review a strategy for using and interpreting the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—4th Edition (WAIS-IV) (Wechsler, 2008) within the South African context given that there are no local norms available for this latest revision of the test. Such norms do exist for the WAIS-III (Wechsler, 1997) in respect of South African black Xhosa first language samples (age range 19–30) that are stratified for both level and quality of education (Shuttleworth-Edwards, Gaylard, & Radloff, 2013). In this research, scores for South African black Xhosa-speaking adults with a background of disadvantaged quality of education were significantly lower than those of demographically equivalent individuals with advantaged quality of education, as well as the United States and United Kingdom standardized norms, thereby implicating the need for separate norms. The advent of the WAIS-IV, therefore, presents the South African clinician with a quandary should they wish to advance to the more contemporary version of the Wechsler adult IQ test for use with disadvantaged local testees. In this instance they might consider it clinically more prudent to use the WAIS-III with its relevant norms rather than the WAIS-IV standardization derived with reference to United States/United Kingdom individuals.
