Elizabeth M. Koppitz
Overview:Assess short-term memory
Age Range:5:6 through 12:0 years
Completion Time:10 minutes
Norms:Data for African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and White children aged 5:6 through 12:0 years; data by sex and for total population
Publication Date:1977
Get a brief, easy-to-administer, standardized test of short-term memory. The Visual Aural Digit Span Test (VADS) is designed to serve as part of an assessment of school-aged children with suspected or known learning disabilities.
VADS consists of four subtests in which numeric sequences involving the digits 1 through 9 are used as stimuli. The child orally repeats or writes the sequences from memory.
The first subtest requires oral repetition of orally presented digits. In the second subtest, the child must orally repeat digits that are presented visually. The third subtest requires the child to write digits that are orally presented. The fourth subtest involves writing digits that are visually presented. The child’s performance on VADS yields 11 scores that you interpret individually.
