General review

The neuropsychological work-up, its extent and contents, varies from one case to another, and there is no one formula for work-up which will suffice as a general model. Some neuropsychiatric patients need little in the way of neuropsychological assessment, and others will require an exhaustive battery of tests. In the ‘average’ case, there will be a need to include one of the commonly used intelligence/developmental tests (like the WISC, the Griffiths or the Leiter to mention but a few). Occasionally this needs to be complemented by using specific language tests, attentional tests, or batteries purporting to tap specific problems relating to dysfunction of particular brain areas.

In this chapter, some of the most commonly used tests will be briefly surveyed. There is no assumption that this represents a comprehensive review, or that it could be used to substitute for a text of neuropsychology. Rather, it should be seen as a short introduction to the area of neuropsychological work-up as it relates particularly to the examination of neuropsychiatrically disordered children and adolescents.

Before we go on to examine these tests, a few basic concepts need to be familiar to the reader. These are: (a) content validity, (b) criterionrelated validity, (c) construct-related validity, (d) test-retest reliability, (e) inter-rater reliability and (f) inter-item consistency.

Content validity refers to the degree to which the item content of a test covers a representative sample of the measured domain.