12:08pm February 20, 2014

➸ Parents in 'gifted' communities tell each other to get their kids tested young...

mosaicofminds:

youneedacat:

…so that they’ll still be identified as gifted before their IQ drops below the threshold for ‘giftedness’.

…and yet people also simultaneously find it so hard to believe that by the age of 15, the normal age that that happens and is known to happen, I no longer had an IQ in the ‘gifted’ range.

I mean yeah it’s somewhat weird it dropped as low as it did by 22, but that’s not

Good point.

(I’m just curious. Are these the same people? Like, are the people who find it so hard to believe your IQ score dropped also in the gifted community? I really hope not!)

I guess I don’t get what’s so weird about a big IQ score drop. I always thought the reason kids’ IQ scores dropped was being denied the opportunity to use their talents and think in the way that comes naturally to them. (A way of thinking that happens to let you get good scores on IQ tests). Of course if kids are denied the opportunity to use their abilities for years, they’ll lose them. Why wouldn’t the loss of opportunities to learn be even greater for autistic kids, especially if they’re diagnosed early and are denied even more opportunities to learn because they’re disabled?

OK, usually the drop is from over 130 to 110 or even 100, yes? But I could definitely see it being greater in a person who, say, lags more and more in working memory or processing speed as they get older. Because that does bring down IQ scores—which, again, is widely known in the gifted community. And I imagine relative lows in working memory or processing speed are pretty common in gifted autistic kids.

Actually, what seems weirdest to me is, the IQ score crash is usually supposed to happen by 3rd or 4th grade. At least, that was what my parents were told back in the day (but I think I’ve read it somewhere, too). I guess it’s unusual that your score didn’t crash until 15…but not a bad thing?

[Also: is it just me or is the parent part of the gifted community incredibly backward? I’m constantly seeing questions on Hoagies’ facebook page that amount to “oh no my kid isn’t good at everything! Is this normal? What do?!” And there is so much “about us without us” I can’t even. Obviously these guys should get to know the autism community…you in particular.]

Sorry, youneedacat, I’m not sure if what I wrote before was coherent or helpful…I’m tired and annoyed at life right now…so to summarize:

1) Yes I agree and the contradiction you point out is really important.

2) I don’t get why people think it’s so weird for your IQ score to drop (or anybody else’s, for that matter).

3) The gifted community is all kinds of messed up.

4) But you are all kinds of insightful and wonderful. :)

Well we don’t really know when it crashed, because I was tested at the age of five, and tested as ‘highly gifted’ (which is not hard to do when you are five and you are able to read, add in a few other talents that are ahead of the game). And then wasn’t tested again until I was fifteen, at which point I was just 'above average’. And then wasn’t tested again until I was twenty-two, at which point I was below average, right on the edge of some definitions of borderline.

I’d heard the crash often happens in adolescence, but I haven’t researched it much. I was just weirded out by parents who knew that scores crash after that and thought that if you just tested kids early enough they’d get a 'truer’ score.

I honestly think the reasons, for me, are that I simply didn’t develop at the same rate or in the same manner as other kids: I was ahead in many areas at the start, but I didn’t progress at the same rate or in the same directions as other kids. Things that look super-impressive when you’re five aren’t that impressive when you’re an adult, unless you continue improving in those areas almost exponentially. And I think a lot of what gets tested as 'gifted’ in young kids (whose IQ scores drop even if they’re not developmentally disabled) is simply having a head start in certain areas, but not necessarily keeping pace after that. Like getting there sooner in the beginning, but not necessarily going fastenough to stay “getting there sooner” when you’re older. It doesn’t mean anything’s wrong, it doesn’t mean you’re not being challenged, it just means that you’re not developing certain cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills that are connected to test-taking, at the same rate, or in the same order, or direction, as other kids. Other than that it doesn’t really mean anything, and which cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills are involved vary person to person.

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