ABSTRACT - The aim of this study was to determine the usability of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) by investigating its psychometric properties with an Arab sample of school students from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Adaptations were made to some verbal items to fit the Emirates society. Some items of this scale were translated into Arabic language; other items were developed. The sample for this study consisted of 1721 individuals with an age range from 6-28 years from all geographic locations in the UAE, and was proportionally distributed between males and females. Data were analyzed with various procedures such as the analysis of variance and SEM. Stability and reliability estimates were computed for the subtests and the total IQ sca1es for each age group and for each gender, and all were adequate. The four scales discriminated well among the age groups and among normal individuals and individuals with special needs thus providing support to its usability for clinical assessment. The SEM analysis confirmed the structure of the scale with verbal and performance scales moderately correlated (.66).