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Spoorthi Maiya
Reg. No.: 242199003
Clinical Psychology, Semester II
Department of Psychiatry
Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Mangalore
Psychodiagnostics (CPY6203)
Seguin Form Board
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Contents
Introduction to Seguin Form Board ........................................................................................... 3
Aim ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Materials .................................................................................................................................... 6
Procedure ................................................................................................................................... 7
Scoring and Interpretation.......................................................................................................... 8
References .................................................................................................................................. 9
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Introduction to Seguin Form Board
Seguin Form Board is said to measure visuospatial perception, organization and
discrimination; psychomotor dexterity, coordination and development; as well as motor and
cognitive speed (Venkatesan, 2014). SFB is said to measure 'g' factor of intelligence, but only
till the age of 8 - 10 years, after which it is said to become a test of manual dexterity instead
of intelligence.
The first form boards were contrived for training purposes. One of the first use was by Itard
to train the Wild Boy of Aveyron. It consisted of a board two feet square upon which were
pasted three pieces of brightly coloured paper-a red circle, a blue triangle, and a black square.
Pieces of cardboard of the same forms and colours were to be matched with these by the boy.
Seguin, a French physician, pointed out that brains of mentally deficient children were not
always deceased or abnormal but were often arrested in development. Seguin constructed a
number of form boards, some of them are still being used at the Seguin School. One consists
of an inch board about one foot square into the surface of which are cut four circular recesses
a half inch deep and varying between an inch and three inches in diameter. Corresponding to
these are four circular blocks one inch thick. Board and blocks are soft wood and are not
stained or painted. Another Seguin board is of hard wood, is considerably larger than the kind
just described and has a dozen variously shaped symmetrical forms. In a third kind the blocks
are of light coloured wood on one side and of dark coloured wood on the other. The only
form boards that Seguin himself used was six recesses that are arranged in a line. Boards and
blocks are all of the same wood and color. Seguin conceived of a series of form boards
graded as to difficulty and he had such a series planned and partly constructed. Dr. Henry H.
Goddard increased the board to its present size, substituted the star and the cross, arranged
the forms more compactly, reduced them to such sizes and proportions that no block could be
set into a recess not its own, and dispensed with the handles.
Method of giving the Test
Dr. Clara H. Town regards form perception and so uses the number of errors as the index of a
child's form board ability. She takes a record of the number of errors (attempts to fit a block
into a recess not its own) in each trial until the trial until all of the blocks are replaced without
error, or until she is convinced that the child cannot replace them. The rapidity of the work
and certain other features are also noted but prominence is given to errors.
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Goddard considers the amount of time required by the child for replacing the blocks of prime
importance. He gives three trials, and takes the time of the shortest of the three as the child's
form board index. He also takes a record of the handling of the blocks and attaches some
importance to the number of errors.
Professor Lightner Witmer usually places the board before the child with no explanation
except a mere statement as, "Put the blocks in” and watches closely to catch the child's first
reactions and to see how he attacks this new kind of problem. The method varies in
successive trials depending on the way the child reacts and the particular features of his
mentality the examiner wishes to see. The child is often allowed to continue it while details
quite apart from the general purpose of the test are studied. For instance the examiner may
check the child's word-hearing ability. The record of the test as kept by Witmer usually
consists of observations dictated while the test is being given.
Seguin Form Board Currently in Use
The SFB appeals to the child’s interest, best effort, affording them a short and fascinating task
which calls for their best effort, and it helps to free him/her from the fear and self-
consciousness which often interfere seriously in a mental examination. At the same time the
test gives the examiner a good general view of the child's mentality ("g" factor) and it usually
indicates more or less clearly the nature of defects. These three methods are distinguished
because they emphasize three different features of the form board test: errors, time, and
reaction to a new task.
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Fig. 1- The Form Board- the forms are designated by numbers as follows: 1. Semi-circle. 2.
Triangle. 3. Cross 4. Elongated hexagon. 5. Oblong. 6. Circle. 7. Square. 8. Flattened oval.19
Star. 10. Lozenge. The ten geometrical figures, as nearly uniform in size as their variety of
form will allow, are cut through an oak board 18 x 12x 1.5 inches. The board is finished in
their natural colour and the blocks are painted black. The whole is carefully finished in order
to give it an attractive appearance, an important feature in a mental testing device. This
description applies to what may be called the standard form board, the type now in most
general use.
Indian Norms
The Seguin form board test was administered by J. Bharat Raj on a total number of 1052
subjects (705 males and 347 females), between 5 to 15 years of age. Similarly, S.K. Goel
used a sample of 1125 subjects (749 males and 376 females), between the age range of 3 to
15 years. A close comparison of Indian and Western norms of Seguin form board highlights
the similarities in performance of the Indian and Western children with respect to their scores,
rather than differences. The slight improvement on the speed factor can be owed to better
training facilities in their country. However, the difference is not very prominent
substantiating the argument that Seguin Form Board Test can be used with equal facility to
gauge the mental development of Indian children also. It is therefore a culture free test.
Advantages of SFB
SFB is considered to be one of the very few 'culture-fair tests' currently in circulation.
• It takes very less time and the chance of children being uncooperative is less;
particularly in children with attention de cit hyperactivity disorder and autistic
spectrum disorders.
• It is easy to administer
• It elicits good interest/motivation from the child to participate
• There is ease of scoring
• It follows the ratio IQ method
• It can be administered to all types of children including those who have speech
impairment, where there are language incompatibility issues and across
socioeconomic and educational backgrounds.
Disadvantages of SFB
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• After about 9 - 10 years of age it will mainly assess 'motor speed and ability' and not
intelligence.
• In addition, there is a 'ceiling effect' for motor dexterity skills that is required for SFB
does not develop much after about 9 – 10 years
• When administered to an individual child, one rarely gets decimal values, and even if
one gets it, there are high chances that it does not reflect the true performance. For
example, not all will be adept at exactly starting the stopwatch when the child picks
up the first block and stop the stopwatch exactly when the child correctly puts the last
block down. Even a half second delay or a half second advancement has significant
positive or negative implications for the child, whereas both may not reflect the
child's ability and might actually be erroneous.
• SFB uses a time score, which is in the point (interval measurement) scale and
converts it to an age (ordinal measurement) scale, thereby obtaining mental age and
ratio IQ.
• The available SFB norms in India completely ignores the SD. In order for a child to
get 'normal/average' IQ, the child's score must exactly/closely match the average score
mentioned in the norms, and even a small delay of a second or two might bring down
the child's IQ drastically
• The scores on SFB are not able to adequately discriminate between individuals who
have
o average intelligence from individuals who have below/above average
intelligence
o borderline intelligence from individuals who have mild mental retardation
o borderline intelligence from individuals who have average intelligence
o above average intelligence to superior level of intelligence, and so on
Aim
To determine mental age of subject by administering Seguin Form Board
Materials
• Seguin Form Board which consists of a rectangular board with 10 wooden cut out
pieces which are of several sizes and shapes
• Scoring key
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• Norms for interpretation
• Stopwatch
• Writing Materials
Procedure
The form board lies horizontally on a table, its lower edge (it is the edge next to the star
recess) even with the edge of the table next to which the child stands. The table must be low
enough so that he can lean well over the board and look down upon the centre of it. The
blocks should be placed in three piles on the table, next to the edge of the board on the side
opposite the child, no block being in the pile nearest its own recess. Placing them at the right
of the board as is often done is of no advantage, and in that position, they cannot be picked up
with the left hand. Placing some at each end of the board is still worse for it offers the most
possibilities for varying the difficulties of handling them. The blocks are arranged as follows:
The child is given the instruction: “These are 10 wooden blocks which have to be placed by
you in the appropriate space. Be as fast as possible. Start when I say ‘Ready’” The stopwatch
is started, and the child is given the ready signal simultaneously. Time is noted down to place
all the blocks back on the board, any fraction of a second is considered a whole. If any block
is left partially outside, resting on the edges, the trial is considered incomplete. This is
brought to the attention of the child, and they are told to place it accurately in the next trials.
The total number of trials are 3 as the third trial is so much more consistent than the first and
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the second but the differences between the third, fourth, and fifth are comparatively small and
of little consequence.
Precautions
• The blocks should be placed by the child in proper order without any suggestion.
• The instructor must not speak or give advice during the trials.
• The child must not leave any block partially outside or on the edges.
• The star must face the experimenter.
Scoring and Interpretation
The score is calculated either as the shortest time of the three trials or as the average of the
three trials. Some versions also calculate the total time taken for all the trials. The score is
converted to mental age by referring to the appropriate norms and IQ is calculated by using
the formula IQ=MA/CA x 100. Both Indian and original norms are available. The scores are
then interpreted based on Weschler’s classification of IQ as given in the table below.
Table 1: Classification of Intellectual and Developmental Disability
Mild Moderate Severe Profound
52- 69 36- 51 20- 35 <20
Table 2: Classification of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as given by Weschler (1997)
IQ Range IQ Classification
130 + Extremely high
120- 129 Very high
110- 119 High average
90- 109 Average
80- 89 Low average
70- 79 Very low
< 69 Extremely low
New Norms for SFB
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Due to some of the limitations of the use of the current norms for SFB, namely the
consideration of only the 'average/mean' values to determine mental age and ignoring the
standard deviation, Roopesh (2021) has come up with new norms. He has used the mean and
SD results mentioned in the Basavarajappa et al. (2009) article to derive the norms. The
norms are 'derived' based on only mean and SD values and not 'developed' based on the entire
sample data from each individual subject. The norms are derived based on the SD values of
normal probability distribution for each IQ category. For example, the “time taken” range
which falls between ±0.66 SD is considered as the 'average' category. That is, if a child of 6
years 4 months takes 29 seconds (shortest time of the 3 trials), then the child is said to have
'average' intelligence. The new proposed norms are similar to the norms of Raven's, Bhatia's
and WISC-IV test norms and hence more appropriate compared to the existing SFB norms.
Table 3: The 'derived Normative' Values to Score/ interpret The SFB's Shortest Time
Range in 1.33 to 2 0.67 to 0.66 to - -0.67 to - -1.34 to -2 < - 2**
SD* 1.32 0.66 1.33
Age (in IQ Range (time taken in seconds)
months) Superior Above Average Below Borderline Probable
Average Average IDD
36- 47 27- 35 36- 43 44- 61 62- 69 70- 77 > 77 secs
48- 59 17- 23 24- 29 30- 43 44- 49 50- 56 > 56 sec
60- 71 8- 16 17- 25 26- 44 45- 53 54- 62 > 62 secs
72- 83 10- 15 16- 21 22- 33 34- 39 40- 45 > 45 secs
84- 95 8- 12 13- 17 18- 28 29- 33 34- 38 > 38 secs
96- 107 10- 12 13- 15 16- 22 23- 25 26- 28 > 28 secs
References
Deka, B., & Kalra, V. (2009). Seguin Form Board Test (SFBT). Prasad Psycho Corporation.
Venkatesan, S. & All India Institute of Speech and Hearing. (2014). Celebrating a Century on
Form Boards with Special Reference to Seguin Form Board as Measure of Intelligence in
Children. In G.J.I.S.S. (Vols. 3–6, pp. 43–51) [Journal-article].
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270884547
Venkatesan, S. (1998). Revalidation of Seguin Form Board Test for Indian children. In Indian
Journal of Applied Psychology (Vols. 35–35, Issue No.1 & 2, pp. 38–42).
