My child has high abilities and yet he has problems at school. Why is that?
My child may have attention deficit disorder, but the school wants to give him an intelligence test. Why?
I already know my child has a neurological disorder. They still want to give him an IQ test. Why? What new information will it tell me?
All these questions are very common among families. And the truth is that “intelligence” tests provide us with a lot of data about cognitive processes. And let me tell you more: What matters less to us is the final number of the test! What we are really interested in knowing, is how much profit you can get from how much or how little you have.
In order to take advantage of everything that is in those little heads, it is essential to know how it works, what are the strengths and weaknesses, what we have and what we should strengthen more. Professionals working in the area of neurodevelopment also need “raw material” to be able to develop our work. And that raw material is different in each person, therefore the way of working will be different in each person.
Let’s not get confused; very intelligent does not mean “guaranteed success” and not very intelligent means “guaranteed failure”. It is always necessary to work and make an effort. Just as there will always be weaknesses and strengths. And knowing them makes the work much more effective.
So you know, the intelligence test is not a test to stigmatize or label or measure our own expectations. The intelligence test is another one of the many very valuable tests on which we base many hypotheses and on which we can begin to work.
