Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article is an improvement on IQ tests, which may help serve autistic people and other neurodiverse humans better.
Before I get started on the meat of this development, a quick reminder is necessary. The most popular IQ test, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, was invented in 1916 to measure, roughly, how good a child would be at learning typical school subjects in a typical school setting. Essentially, what this test measures is book smarts.
While the culture overall has decided this is the only kind of intelligence there is, if you ask most autistic people, we can tell you it's not. I, for example, score well on IQ tests, but struggle with identifying emotions in strangers. Autistic people may also struggle with organization, planning, and other things that fall under the heading of Executive Functioning. While pop culture may not consider these skills "intelligence," you can bet autistic people are called "stupid" when we have a hard time with them.
As it happens, there are tons of kinds of intelligence, and most of them are not covered in IQ tests. Interpersonal intelligence is a struggle point for me, but you won't find a score for it in a typical IQ test. Musical intelligence, like how well you can match tones, stay on key, and keep a rhythm, isn't touched by IQ tests. Spatial intelligence, which includes physical coordination and benefits athletes especially, certainly isn't tested or covered by IQ tests.
Long story short: IQ tests are an extremely restrictive measure of one very limited form of intelligence.
So, what does this slightly truncated version of an IQ test mean? Well, mostly, it means fairer testing for people with shorter attention spans and/or difficulty sitting still and focusing. It's hard enough for autistic people to be in strange surroundings with strange noises and strange people. On top of that, the typical version of this test takes two hours, which is a long time for even neurotypical children. Reducing the length of time while still keeping the usefulness and validity of the test means that your results are going to be a better reflection of the child's abilities.
In short, prior versions of this test may have wrongly told us that autistic children were below average when they aren't. Decisions like "this child belongs in special education 100% of the time" may have been made as a result, when that was not in the child's best interests.
A better, more accurate test means better results, means better decisions on the child's education.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article is an improvement on IQ tests, which may help serve autistic people and other neurodiverse humans better.
Before I get started on the meat of this development, a quick reminder is necessary. The most popular IQ test, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, was invented in 1916 to measure, roughly, how good a child would be at learning typical school subjects in a typical school setting. Essentially, what this test measures is book smarts.
While the culture overall has decided this is the only kind of intelligence there is, if you ask most autistic people, we can tell you it's not. I, for example, score well on IQ tests, but struggle with identifying emotions in strangers. Autistic people may also struggle with organization, planning, and other things that fall under the heading of Executive Functioning. While pop culture may not consider these skills "intelligence," you can bet autistic people are called "stupid" when we have a hard time with them.
As it happens, there are tons of kinds of intelligence, and most of them are not covered in IQ tests. Interpersonal intelligence is a struggle point for me, but you won't find a score for it in a typical IQ test. Musical intelligence, like how well you can match tones, stay on key, and keep a rhythm, isn't touched by IQ tests. Spatial intelligence, which includes physical coordination and benefits athletes especially, certainly isn't tested or covered by IQ tests.
Long story short: IQ tests are an extremely restrictive measure of one very limited form of intelligence.
So, what does this slightly truncated version of an IQ test mean? Well, mostly, it means fairer testing for people with shorter attention spans and/or difficulty sitting still and focusing. It's hard enough for autistic people to be in strange surroundings with strange noises and strange people. On top of that, the typical version of this test takes two hours, which is a long time for even neurotypical children. Reducing the length of time while still keeping the usefulness and validity of the test means that your results are going to be a better reflection of the child's abilities.
In short, prior versions of this test may have wrongly told us that autistic children were below average when they aren't. Decisions like "this child belongs in special education 100% of the time" may have been made as a result, when that was not in the child's best interests.
A better, more accurate test means better results, means better decisions on the child's education.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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