The headline of a recent Scientific American article grabbed my attention. When I read the words The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids I thought 'Yes! The professionals are finally on the right track!' In short the article discusses how the tests overestimate disability in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder while they fail to acknowledge abilities that people with autism commonly posses (tasks that involve pattern recognition, logical reasoning and picking out irregularities in data or arguments).
Many of us parents have known for years that the tests psychologists use to assess people on the spectrum are flawed. I know my own son could not answer questions unless they were phrased in a specific way. I remember sitting in with my son when he was being tested at age four and a half. I tried to rephrase a question for him in a way I knew he could answer and was immediately informed by the psychologist I could not intervene.
The author also notes that the current belief that the majority of individuals with autism are cognitively impaired is wrong. The statistic of 70 to 80 percent of the autistic population being cognitively impaired appalled me, as a parent, because I thought that number was too high because many of the children I had met in my autism community were quite bright. I figured it was probably because the tests were not designed well enough to assess individuals with autism. I am grateful that a researcher agreed. Here is an excerpt from the article.
"Researchers have long considered the majority of those affected by autism to be mentally retarded. Although the numbers cited vary, they generally fall between 70 to 80 percent of the affected population. But when Meredyth Edelson, A researcher at Willamette University, went looking for the source of those statistics, she was surprised that you could not find anything conclusive. Many of the conclusions were based on intelligence tests that tend to overestimate disability in autistic people. Our knowledge is based on pretty bad data," she says.
The one flaw of this article is that readers that are part of the autism community might be offended because the author used the R-word (retardation) instead of writing "cognitively impaired" and did not use people first language ("autistic" instead of "person with autism.") Putting the political incorrectness aside, I am grateful that the author emphasizes that testing should put a higher value on the abilities and that certain factors (such as verbal processing) should be considered when an individual with autism is tested.
8 comments:
Good points. I am often frustrated by "intelligence testing" for my son, the tests indicate MR, but the teachers and evaluators who give him the tests know him and openly acknowledge to me that it's not accurate, but as it is the only quantitive way to test him (and his neurotypical peers) that's how it is. Wish there were better ways to test, wish testing wasn't really necessary....
I would be very cautious in letting my child be exposed to such judgement. For one thing he behaves differently in strage environments, so nothing would be accurate anyway. I have also stopped using the word "disorder" in ASD as it hurts my son... in our home ASD stands for autism spectrum difference.
That is the right track of course...not fair to treat the autistic as mentally retarded.And this helps in understanding the patients and treating them as well.
I was beyond 'frustrated' with the 'intelligence testing.' It is so daunting when you're first given that information. Hopefully they'll be more cautious in their dire predictions in the future.
My 10 year old son Christopher recently underwent a battery of tests. He has already been diagnosed with ADHD & ODD at the age of 2 1/2, Bi-polar around age 5. He was never tested specifically for Autism/Aspberger's, they said there were a lot of aspects of the Autism spectrum present but not an actual diagnosis. A lot of traits fit which we were very sympathetic to, but we concentrated more on his other diagnosis, mostly his ADHD. But I've always known there was more to the picture. His recent testing has put him absolutely no question about it, in the high end functioning of the Autism Spectrum, Aspberger's. This has in a way been a shock to me but then again not. I just read All Cat's have Aspberger's and got shivers, because everything fits to a tee. He knows he's always been different and wants to know why...I am wondering if anyone has some advice about telling him...my husband said not to say anything, that my son Christopher would be crushed but I talked to Christopher about his differences in a round about way and he said he really wants to know why he's so different. I gave him other examples of his differences and possibilites for them that are true but I didn't mention Aspberger's....can anyone help me with this? I'd greatly appreciate some advice. Thanks, Kelley
I agree that the stats you mentioned for kids on the spectrum being impaired is not consistent with my experience. I have seen many kids on the spectrum and as you mention they are usually very intelligent.
Good post. Yea, the labeling of a child is always problematic. My 13 old is severely autistic. When he is tested though, the results greatly depend on the mood he is in. If he is in a bad mood he will not do any of the tasks and get a zero. If he likes you and he is in the mood, he can do a great number of things. Anyway, enjoyed your posts.
kirk
Autistic kids shouldn't be treated any differently than anyone else. I feel that doctors and schools make this unfortunate disorder a lot more than it should be, instead of treating these kid's like all of the "normal" kids around; they treat then as though mentally disabled, which is extrememly wrong.
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