Measurement of Intelligence in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Factors Affecting Performance
Year: 2012
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The assessment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) requires the measurement of intelligence, because the diagnostic criteria include a judgment about whether social and communication deficits are greater than would be expected given the general developmental level of the child.In addition, results of cognitive testing, including IQ scores and the potential discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal intellectual abilities, impact educational placement, treatment strategies, research design, and theories of neurodevelopment and cognition in ASD.Despite its widespread importance, there are fundamental methodological aspects of intellectual assessment in ASD, such as the intelligence measure selected, that may affect testing results.The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Stanford-Binet (SB) are two of the most commonly used measures to evaluate intelligence in ASD.Full-scale and composite scores on the WISC and SB have been shown to be highly correlated with each other in several pediatric populations, including children with mild intellectual disability (ID) or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as in typically-developing children.Despite these high correlations, significant discrepancies between the scores, as many as 20 IQ points, have been reported for an individual.Comparisons between scores on the WISC and SB have not been made in children with ASD.The present study focused on how the WISC and SB compare on IQ scores, as well as characterization of intelligence and verbal-nonverbal discrepancy.The study also addressed the question of whether diagnostic symptoms, adaptive functioning, or neuropsychological deficits associated with the clinical presentation of ASD, differentially affect performance on the WISC and the SB.Forty children with ASD between the ages of 10 and 16, who were recruited through an autism clinic, completed a test battery (WISC-IV, SB-5, Beery VMI, CELF-Screener, and NEPSY -I will miss your honest and witty critiques.Additionally, thank you to the 'Bishop Lab' of Cincinnati Children's Hospital for their support, especially Dr. Amie Duncan and Ms. Leslie Markowitz who spent hours collecting parent data.Thanks to Suzan Sucro for her assistance.This
Author: Katherine T. Baum
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of Cincinnati
OpenAlex ID: W141443605