Influenced by a mandate from the French government addressing the needs of mentally retarded children, Binet and his colleague Théodore Simon decided to develop a test capable of distinguishing mentally retarded children from those of normal intelligence. They did this through multiple administrations and refinements of their measure, giving the test both to children of normal intelligence and those identified as mentally retarded. The first version of their test was published in 1905, with several revisions following in quick succession. By providing the expected scores for each age in the 1908 edition, Binet and Simon created the first empirically validated, standardized test. Within a few years, the Binet-Simon test had spread to countries on five continents.