The Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales enjoy a long and famous history in the assessment of general cognitive abilities in children. While the Raven's Progressive Matrices provide an effective assessment of non-verbal ability, an important feature for our ethnically diverse population, the Vocabulary Scales provide meaningful scores in the verbal domain.

This important instrument has now been restandardized. In this standardized study, 640 children between 4 and 11 years were administered the Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) and the Crichton Vocabulary Scale (CVS). 960 children aged between 7 and 18 years received the Standard Progressive Matrices—Plus Version (SPM+) and Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale (MHV).

The data was collected in groups for the SPM+ and MHV, and comparison studies against individual administration were completed. Equating studies on other forms of the Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales (e.g. SPM–Classic, CPM–Parallel) were also carried out.

This standardization represents the most significant development for the children's version of the Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales since the 1979 and 1982 standardizations with children aged from 5 to 16 years.

The re-standardization means that you can now confidently use the Raven's to assess non-verbal and verbal aspects of general ability in school-aged children.

Along with this standardization, an extensive redesign of the product was completed, simplifying and updating the materials. This makes the test now more attractive and easier to use.