Projects & Affiliations

Intellectual Assessment in Autism Survey

Shahar Gindi, MA, Ph.D. Candidate
Psychometrist, Children and Youth Services Division, Surrey Place Centre

Background

Surrey Place Centre in the city of Toronto is conducting a study on the issue of intellectual assessment of children with autism. According to the DSM-IV, the level of cognitive functioning is irrelevant to the diagnosis of autism (APA, 1994). However, estimates suggest that 75% of individuals with autism are also assessed to have cognitive impairments placing them in the mentally handicapped range (Happé, 1995). It is extremely difficult to determine the extent to which these individuals are truly mentally handicapped and the weight of the interfering effects of autism that hinder their performance. This is especially the case with autistic children with poor expressive language (often referred to as "nonverbal" children).

The Study

The present study aims to survey the common practices of intelligence assessment in the province of Ontario, with respect to children with autism with poor expressive language. It focuses on the intelligence measures currently available with the intention of finding what intellectual measures are commonly used for the purpose of intellectual assessment of these children. This study also investigates how appropriate the assessing psychologist believes these measures to be; what test features he or she believes are important for this kind of assessment; and what obstacles he or she finds in conducting assessments with the intelligence tests currently available.

Since the definition of autism is wide, the questionnaire focuses on children with autism with low expressive language, who are often referred to as "nonverbal" autistic children.

Participate

The questionnaire (including a consent form) is available in Adobe Acrobat format.

Download Survey (pdf format)

Print the file and send the completed questionnaire and consent form to:

Shahar Gindi
2 Surrey Street
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C2

If you have any questions please contact Shahar at: (416) 925-5141.