About the Measure
| Domains | Omnibus |
| Subscales | Core scales verbal ability, non-verbal reasoning and spatial ability- separate scores for naming vocabulary, early number concepts |
| Target Construct | Oral language: Receptive and expressive language skills at the word level. Numeracy: Early number concepts |
| Description | The British Ability Scales (BAS) has long been established as a leading standardised battery in the UK for assessing a child’s cognitive ability and educational achievement. Comprising 20 shorts tests, each measuring particular types of knowledge, thinking and/or skills, BAS3 remains unique in the range of measurement facilities it offers and the variety of scales it includes. |
| Test Authors | Elliot, Smith & McCulloch, 2004 (original test) |
| Publisher | GL Assessment (2004) |
| Psychometry | |
| Implementation |
Implementation details
| Respondent | Child |
| Prior knowledge Required | Individually administered by educational and clinical psychologists |
| Scoring | Scoring clear and transparent, need to distinguish raw scores, ability scores and t scores. Online scoring system available |
| Time | 30 to 45 minutes |
| Age | 3 years to 8 years and 11 months. |
Psychometric details
| UK norms | YES |
| Norm / Criterion referenced | Norm referenced: Norms for separate subscales |
| Standardisation sample | 1480 |
| Reliability | It proved impractical to obtain test-retest data for the Early years scales. Robust evidence of test-retest stability is available for DAS II with coefficients ranging .63 to .92. |
| Criterion validity | Co-normed with the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension: Early years and passage reading primary. |
| Construct validity | Intercorrelations of Core Cognitive Scales and Composites ranged .49 to 1 |
| Concurrent validity | Reported for earlier versions of the test but data was not available at the time of review for the current test |