The value of conventional intelligence quotient (IQ) testing, which is widely used on a global level, has been acknowledged and demonstrated over the years as it provides a structured method of evaluating achievement and an individual's acquisition of knowledge (Naglieri & Kaufman, 2001; Sattler, 2008). IQ testing has also shown its merit within education systems throughout the world (Kaufman, 1979). However, since what is described as the ‘cognitive revolution’ in the field of psychology in the 1960s (Miller, 2003; Naglieri, 1999a), there have been ongoing controversies about issues such as the definition and assessment of intelligence, as well as cultural and racial differences in IQ test results. Some have argued that IQ tests such as the Binet and Wechsler Scales, which were first developed in the early part of the last century, are based on a narrow and outmoded conceptualisation of intelligence as a general intellectual construct (‘g’) which is fixed and immutable (Das & Abbott, 1995; Naglieri, 1989). This argument can also be applied to the currently used standardised South African IQ tests, such as the Junior South African Individual Scales and the Senior South African Individual Scales which were first published in the 1980s.

A major criticism of traditional approaches to intelligence testing is that they place individuals with limited language or academic skills at an unfair disadvantage. Naglieri and Kaufman (2001) assert that the verbal subtests of conventional IQ measures could be conceived more as measures of achievement and acquired knowledge, rather than of underlying ability. The difficulty arises as acquired knowledge is influenced by the individual's formal learning experiences and cultural exposure. These issues are of vital importance within the multilingual South African context, where children have vastly different cultural experiences and a legacy of unequal early learning and schooling opportunities.