Positively Autism

Dear Nicole,

I wonder if during your testing you take a family history. Two variables such as the father's age and the mother's father's age at her birth seem related to risk of gene mutations in sperm with resulting autism. Would this be interesting to check? Is more severe non-familial autism related to more advanced paternal age? Maybe someone could research this.

Leslie

That's fascinating. I'm delighted to read that you were so willing to modify the test.

I certainly found it very frustrating when my boys were tested - one insisted on reading the code numbers and letters on the side of the page [the very fine print] rather than answer the question.

My other one wouldn't 'point' to the pictures because he has tactile defensive issues and abhors paper!
Cheers

I made some related points in response to Lyn Soraya's blog on May 19. All such tests reflect and impose the biases and limitations of the tester.

So well done, Nicole, for some great lateral thinking. It could well be that such approaches will eventually accumulate to demonstrate that people on the autistic spectrum really do think very differently from the norm. This is not to say that deviations from this norm are negative. On the contrary, they are likely to be interesting or even very positive.

I find it very sad to know that, as far as our current level of knowledge (NT and thus with the weight of majority) is concerned, the world may be wasting/ losing some excellent brain power for want of a bit of understanding.

Dear nicole,
I am working as Supervisor(Psychology) at AYJNIHH, ERC,Kolkata, India since 1989.
I have the same experience like you. Most of the children having autism (3yrs.-15yrs.)can respond to Seguin Form Board(SFB)test of Intelligence(performance)easily...with mild-boarderline-average Intelligence and few children(4-5 out of 10 heads) at the age group of 5yrs. to 12yrs.(CARS classification-mild to severe Autism)often score with Percentile Rank(PR) of around 50th....with a very rare occation PR beyond 75th on Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices.
Yours mode of application of the Raven's Prgressive Matrices is like board form of the same test.I must appreciate your application and observation. I shall also try your mode next time, obviously I shall feed back you in time. With regards, thanks.. SUDIP BASU.

When I was about 3, doctors suggested to my mother that i was severely retarded and she should consider institutionalizing me. To this very day, I usually don't do to well on IQ tests.
IQ tests are geared almost exclusively to the typical population.
However, I am self taught in many different subject areas, graduated REGULAR high school (without much study), graduated the Navy's nuclear field "a" school, and graduated with honors from my community college's electronics engineering program. Might I also say that I am a self taught computer programmer and administrator? I also taught myself how to open up most types of locks.

I have to say that I did not do so badly for being "retarded." The fact is that I am not "retarded" but autistic. I only wonder how many people are languishing away in institutions due to improper labeling. I also wonder how many deaf, blind or other sensory disordered people are wrongly labeled. If I need treatment for any autism related problems, I WILL NOT go to a psychiatrist or psychologist but rather to a neurologist.

Leslie, I work in a school, so this is not part of the testing we do. However, I think I've heard of some research on paternal age and Autism. I'll try to find it, and post it here. Thanks for commenting! Maddy, thanks for sharing your story. It certainly illustrates the need for a variety of testing strategies. I hope this is an area that we continue to research and improve in the future. Lou, thanks for your comments and nice words! I certainly agree. Sudip Basu, I'd love to hear more about your projects. Thanks for your comments! William, your story makes a lot of important points. There certainly are a variety of intelligences, as well as various ways to measure them. Thanks for sharing!

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed.

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-autism

It is quite amazing how one simple modification can help a student so much. Simply cutting out the pictures, for this young man to see as individual pictures, helped him tremendously. This modification helped him so much that, when you did not have time to cut the pictures apart, he had learned the concept of the test and figured out that he needed to cut the pictures apart to get the right picture. I can see how this can be very frustrating, as a parent and as a teacher, to watch the student struggle and know that, if the test had a very simple modification, the student could excel a great deal more than if the modification is not put in place. It is a great idea for all teachers to make sure that, with every student, they make sure to observe and document things that help the children, and things that do not work so well for the children. If a teacher puts a lot of effort forward to make modifications that are necessary, each student will be given the best and will have the opportunity to progress throughout their schooling. I can also see how, if I were a student who needed modifications with tests, or anything, I would hope my teacher would take the time to observe me and find the best ways to help me do well in his/her classroom.
For some students, it is quite difficult to look at pictures and be able to distinguish that the pictures are different shapes and sizes. For this student, visual issues with shapes of the same color and size may have been a significant factor in how well the student did. The fact that the teacher took the time to observe the student’s difficulties with the pictures, and find a way to separate the pictures to make it easier, helped the student a lot. The student was able to see each individual picture and figure out which picture came next in the pattern. I would hope all teachers would take the time to try to make such helpful modifications for each student.