How can you tell if an autistic child is smart?

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So I nanny an autistic five year old, and his parents/psychologist are disagreeing over his intelligence. The dad tells other people his son is at a two to three year old level. The psychologist saw him for a single two hour visit and at the end of the visit (despite not having done any testing) pronounced him to be average to below average intelligence. Given that, I think the psychologist was just going off of stereotypes about autistic people. The mom sees....well, actually, I don't think she was paying attention to it until the dad and the psych started saying things about it, but now she's upset and cares about the subject.

I, too, would not have seeked to categorize his intelligence, but with all this negative talk out there I want to clear things up. Because walking around and treating a kid like they have low intelligence (and we're not talking accommodations, which I would always support, we're talking stigma) whether or not they do is not okay. And in this case, I've spent a lot of time with him (not as much as the parents, of course) and I actually don't think he's 'below average' at all.

I've started paying attention myself now. To be honest, even though I do admit these measures are subjective and I'm not fond of categorizing either, I think he might be average to above average because though, naturally, he struggles with anything that requires language (he does speak verbally, but has difficulty doing so), when it comes to other things, like playing video games (which are for kids ages 10 and up but he does pretty well at now that I taught him the controls) or iPad games like Angry Birds (where he predicts when he's about to lose and starts the game over when he sees it's futile), or putting together puzzles, or all the things he's done on the sticker chart I used to use (putting a sticker on the last square instead of the first, ripping a sticker in two pieces so it'd count as two stickers, etc), he seems pretty bright.

The issue, of course, is no actual testing has been conducted (and, as you all know, the accuracy of the results of IQ tests on autistic people is also hotly contested) and so everyone is just going off of feelings and stereotypes. I'm going to talk to them (the parents, the psych would never listen to me) about how this is just too soon and no one at this point is qualified to say anything and to shove him into a category is not okay.

But it got me wondering, without verbal language as an indicator, how can you tell if a child is smart? Do you guys have any thoughts?

I was considered dumb by my parents, teachers even made fun of me, and everyone.

Around age twelve, as we were driving down the highway, I told my dad to get under a highway overpass, so rain would not hit us. He was so happy, excited and proud of me for expressing intelligent thought. He kept raving to my mom about it.

Some ASD people can just take a much longer time to develop.

I am not sure what the point is to the psych even pulling something out of his butt without testing. Either test or don't --- but I don't see the sense in this. Is he in school? Has the school attempted testing. (Yes, I know the testing is very flawed) I am not sure I have enough background to even make sense of any of this.

There are different kinds of intelligence, and I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to kind of half-*ss a test for all of them.

Most testing won't work well if the child will not imitate someone, which could very well be b/c the kid does not give a flip, not because he can't do the task.

The early years intelligence testing, if I remember right, involved matching patterns made with blocks, and things like accurately labeling (verbally or not) inanimate objects. I don't think there was cause-effect testing, or sequencing, but maybe by 5 they did. I don't remember. I didn't observe the later testing.

I am really not sure why they are hell-bent in testing so young anyway, unless it is to figure out the best way to teach the child or discuss placement. I see no point to half-*ass guessing at all.

I would guess that the kid is smart. His developement is different. Oh well. An IQ test would probably just make things worse. Why do I think he is smart? Because I trust your judgement. You know this kid better than the psychologist does, and the parents are too caught up in their fears for their child for them to be able to tell.

There are different kinds of "smart". A person can be really smart in some areas and not in others. It's not a straightforward thing where you are or you aren't, even where IQ is concerned.

In answer to your question, one must have a precise, coherent definition of "smart" and a practical, reliable way to test people for the qualities in the definition.

How can you tell if anyone is actually "smart"?

Sure, you can have your qualifiers like putting this block in that hole and so on (to higher education), but I see a lot of very dumb "smart" people around.

In my case it took time for my intelligence to manifest itself in a way that is perceivable to others. When I was 5 I was non verbal and non responsive and considered severely autistic / intellectually disabled.

I'm AS and my parents thought of me as stupid until I moved out when I was 32. If I knew there was a way that I could get subsidized housing before than, I would have moved out when I was in my Mid 20s. My parents denied me the right to vote three days before my 19th Birthday when I was 18, which is voting age in Canada. Their faulty logic was they thought I didn't understand what was going on, when I knew damn well everything that was going on and I also knew which party I was going to vote for.

There was also the time that Ray Davies came into Vancouver and my aunt and mother put that stupid letter in the editorial section of The Province explaining that it was only Ray Davies who was coming and not the entire band. I've even read in the paper that what was left of The Kinks split up a month before I wrote that letter. I was going to explain to my dad that it was only Ray Davies who was coming and not the entire band, but I didn't want to start any verbal wars about that. Things were peaceful between us and I didn't want any verbal crossfires going on between the two of us.

From the time I was 4 until I moved out, I couldn't believe the things my parents thought they could get away with just because I'm on the spectrum, and I'm on the AS end of the spectrum. No wonder I feel I need to take off and go on one of my bottle walks, gathering recycling once or twice a day. I have the urge to do it now, but it's past 7 in the evening and I want to keep myself safe. I wasn't physically abused. I was mentally and emotionally abused though.

LOL....as long as you don't seek Lola, you'll be okay.

I took an IQ test at age 4 or 5 and scored 60. I'm very happy my parents didn't ever think it had been reliable. My entire life could have been completely different if they had.

I think intelligence is multi-faceted and is much more changeable than most people seem to think.

So, what would happen if *you* think he is smart and treated him accordingly? (I'm guessing mostly positive outcomes)

For certain, if his parents agreed with you, it would be better. What is the best way to have them agree with you? How would they react to this-

I applaud you greatly for wanting to stand up for him. I want you to do it in the most productive manner possible.

lol, they would not react well, you're very right. But the weird thing about social stuff is that you can say the exact same thing, but with a different tone, and all of a sudden it's okay. And that's what I plan to do - to couch it in inspirational and happy terms, not "gah, this is so frustrating, I can't believe the psych said this, and oh my goodness, he's only five years old!" terms. I have halfway decent social skills (by which I mean really bad by neurotypical standards, but amazing by AS standards), so I should be able to pull that off. To do otherwise, you're right, would have bad results, and I appreciate that you're looking out for me there.