Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Autism and IQ testing

I work with a woman who has a son who is highly functioning autistic. I was talking with her today and she mentioned that she also thinks he is gifted in math. I asked her if he had been IQ tested and she said the school doesn't want to test him because he has problems with receptive language and they don't think he'd do well. She lives in a very rural area and I don't know how much her school knows about testing. I was wondering if anyone knew of an IQ test that would be appropriate for an autistic child with receptive language difficulties. She told me he just turned 7 in December and he has minimal problems with expressive language.

Such a test may not exist but thanks if anyone can help!

Is he high functioning autism or does he have aspergers or gifted aspergers? The phrases are often used interchangably but there is a difference. Sounds more like it might be aspergers from what little information provided. If anything testing will provide a bigger picture of his strengths and weaknesses. My daughter has gifted aspergers, and is often mistakenly referred to as high functioning autism. She didn't do as well on the WJ testing, I think because it is so brief but did well with the SB IV and the WIATT and WRATT.

I don't know enough about the specific tests to suggest one over the other. But I would think that the child would need the right examiner not just the test. The tests are only as good as the examiner is at both administrating and interpreting it. And testing a child on the spectrum, no matter what the diagnosis, takes a skilled examiner who is very familiar with both the tests and how to give and interpret them.

I would suggest finding an agency or psychologist who states they specialize in testing kids with ASD. Then ask that person about their experience with gifted kids with ASD. You should know by their responses whether they are likely to even have a clue about the whole thing! I've run into psychologists who think that the relative strengths are meaningless simply because the child DOES have autism. Better to find someone who understands the relative nature of the numbers from a test and how to use the child's strengths to support the weaknesses.

The school may be right, that any test given wouldn't really be meaningful due to his inability to follow directions. But perhaps you won't know until you try. I would suggest private testing thought, lest the school test, get bad scores and use that against the child.

Thanks for the replies! She said she thinks he probably really has aspergers but she hasn't had him evaluated lately so she doesn't have that diagnosis. She's not sure if he is gifted but she mentioned that his math skills are far above other 1st graders and that the administration has noticed this but don't think the test they administer would work for him.

melmichigan thanks for the test names and doodlebug I think you are right about the tester. I'll pass on the information to her. Thanks!!

I agree - I think that finding an expert tester who has experience with gifted kids who have autistic-like issues is crucial.

IQ testing aside, whenever I hear about or meet cases like this (almost anytime I hear "high functioning" autism) I would want to question/verify the original diagnosis, possibly by getting another opinion, etc. (e.g. there was one boy who went to our speech therapist right after our appt each week, and he was far more social than my kids, lol. I found it very hard to believe that he met the criteria for autism as set forth in the DSM-IV, which requires a severe lack of empathy, among other things). In these situations, I like to refer to The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide - there is an excellent chapter on autism and distinguishing it from other issues.

Just thought of something else - the child has good expressive language but not good receptive - that kind of raises a red flag for me that there's a possibility this could be an auditory processing situation rather than autism. I might expect the opposite from an autistic kid (in my very non-expert opinion).

It would seem that having an accurate diagnosis (autism vs. something else like auditory processing) might greatly affect what the most effective testing approach would be.

just my two cents