Wisconsin Behavior Rating Scale: measure of adaptive behavior for the developmental levels of 0 to 3 years.

The development of the Wisconsin Behavior Rating Scale was examined. We hypothesized that the extensive content of the scale as well as its arrangement of items with progressive difficulty would be effective in discriminating a rather homogeneous group of individuals functioning between 0 and 4.0 years. The scale was standardized on a sample of 325 institutionalized mentally retarded persons and a sample of 184 nonretarded infants and young children. Highly acceptable levels of reliability and validity were established for both samples. With respect to factorial validity, cognitive and psychomotor abilities accounted for approximately 83% of the explained variance. The hypothesis was supported in terms of adequate results of high concurrent and construct validity of the scale.