Sharing from Redefining Normal: A Young Women’s Journey with Autsm
When it comes to measuring the capabilities and challenges of autistic children and adults, IQ is one of the main measures that is employed. However, there are some reasons why traditional IQ tests are not the most accurate ways in understanding the full scope of individuals on the spectrum. For label-obsessed neurotypicals, these tests can provide explanation in a simplistic matter in understanding the capabilities and challenges for those on the spectrum. However for the autistic community, these tests can be a disservice especially when it comes to educational placement and provision of services. It is with this post, I will discuss some of the flaws or shortcomings of traditional IQ tests.
Read the rest here: Redefining Normal: A Young Women’s Journey with Autism
Autistic Ultra 
Before clicking through, I have a feeling the thrust of this could be “the way the test is set up focusses on a fairly narrow range of mental abilities, and so skews the result one way or the other for someone with autism depending whether or not it aligns with their particular skill set and interests; either painting them as intellectually disabled when they aren’t (so suggesting their difficulties are down to something other than autism), or producing an anomalously sky-high score that makes them look like a highly competent genius and masks off the other considerable difficulties they may face and need support with in order to leverage any real part of their actual intelligence… after all, how can you be disabled if you also have a really high IQ, and don’t show clear physical signs like Hawking did?”
I mean … I sure know I’ve had a good dose of the latter. Although it was eventually used as a diagnostic implement by a more savvy set of psychs who compared the fairly narrow range of high scores with similarly spiky canyons elsewhere, which is itself a sign of certain disability traits. Dyslexic processing issues, aspergers, etc. As well as marking a need for support in order to actually reach your potential, as the troughs end up being stumbling blocks for the peaks, tripping you up and leaving you far in the wake of peers of otherwise average IQ but with much more balanced performance across the full range of multiple intelligences…
(I will read it and see if that’s the case, or I have more learning to do, but I need to leave the flat for an hour or two first)
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