Random question about something in a magazine article

Post Reply New Topic

Article from Scientific American, Nov. 30, 2011: The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids By Rose Eveleth

Author talking about her brother taking a test:

Why is that not an appropriate question? What's wrong with it?

There is nothing wrong with it! Like most tests I've read, they are written and judged by an NT, with the assumption that the NT perspective is the only one worth having. Apparently the NT proctor assumes that unusual or different = inappropriate. This pisses me right off!

Last edited by WeeYank on 25 Sep 2014, 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NT culture says you are supposed to care more about the overall situation, not minor details like cake flavor, AND, if you do talk about details, you are supposed to show empathy by knowing which details would be more important to an NT, like, where the ceremony will be, whether or not all the family can attend, etc. You are supposed to know that most people wouldn't care very much about the type of cake.

Um...isn't it a test to see whether or not you are NT? The purpose of asking the question isn't to elicit a "correct" answer, but to judge whether the answer is an autistic or neurotypical one.

BTW, the NT response would be something like, "Who's the lucky guy/girl?" or "Have you set a date yet?" The cake is a relatively minor detail and not something most NTs would ask about first.

I must admit then that I have a serious quarrel with NT culture.

I didn't think so, based on the original post. Did I miss something?

"This year Decker was kicked out of a test much like WISC. Every three years, as he moves through the public school system, his progress is re-evaluated as a part of his Individualized Education Plan?a set of guidelines designed to help people with disabilities reach their educational goal."

Seems to be something like an IQ test.

From the article I understood it to be a test of intelligence as well, not neuro-typicality. However, it appears rigged to expect objective answers to subjective questions, which is an example of poor test writing. What is not known or taken into consideration is the test-taker's reason for responding the way he did. Perhaps he is allergic to chocolate and wants to establish whether or not he must avoid the reception because of a chocolate cake. Perhaps he wishes to bring a gift of wine and wants to ensure it complements the cake. The proctor, in the interest of fairness, should have found out why before declaring his response to be not correct.

It wouldn't be a usual first question. Most people would probably ask if they had set a date. But that doesn't mean it's wrong. It depends on the context. If you were a baker then maybe you would be very interested in the cake?

Exactly.

Thanks for the answers!

Nothing wrong with the question: if her brother were seven years old.

That is not an informative answer. What does the age of the questioner have to do with whether or not the question is inappropriate?

That is an excellent article, by the way. I hope everyone here reads it:

The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids

What intelligence tests might be overlooking when it comes to autism
Nov 30, 2011 |By Rose Eveleth

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... stic-kids/

snip:
The ?high functioning? autistic children, with the least severe version of the disability, were not the only ones to score higher. Soulieres conducted a study recently at a school for autistic children considered intellectually disabled. Using the Raven test, she found that about half of them scored in the average range for the general population. "Many of those who are considered low-functioning?if you give them other intelligence tests, you will find hidden potential," she says. "They can solve really complex problems if you give them material that they can optimally process."

What this means, she says, is that schools are underestimating the abilities of autistic children all across the spectrum. The widespread use of the WISC in schools has helped set expectations of autistic kids too low?assuming that they will not be able to learn the same things that the average child can. Based on the test results, people come to the conclusion that autistic children cannot learn, when perhaps they do not learn the same way other people do.

This hidden potential was recently acknowledged by Laurent Mottron, a psychiatrist at the University of Montreal. In an article in the November 3 issue of Nature, he recounts his own experience working with high-functioning autistic people in his lab, which showed him the power of the autistic brain rather than its limitations. Mottron concludes that perhaps autism is not really a disease at all?that it is perhaps just a different way of looking at the world that should be celebrated rather than viewed as pathology.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... stic-kids/

^I agree. I thought it was a highly positive and even empowering article. Hope it will contribute to a revision in the way both analytical as well as social intelligence are measured in schoolchildren. Focusing on an autistic child's skills instead of their limitations should be part and parcel of any education system they're in.

I suppose age matters in that this is an age-inappropriate question. Children (and for that matter high schoolers) aren't expected to know the etiquette of wedding discussions. If you aren't an adult, you're only hearing about (or attending) a wedding of a family member or friend of the family. It's not like your classmates are getting married. The is the sort of thing for adults to know how to answer if a co-worker is getting married.

But on to the bigger question: what the heck is a social etiquette question doing on an IQ test? Social etiquette is the ultimate in culture-bound information and these tests are supposed to be jettisoning culture-bound questions. There isn't right or wrong. There is conformation to local etiquette or not. It has no place on an IQ test.

A friend told me how her (non-autistic) son answered "wrong" to an IQ test he was given by doctors as part of a language delay workup. He was asked to point to the item that would be appropriate for lunch and he failed to point to the "correct" item of hot dog but instead pointed to the "incorrect" item of cereal since he often liked cereal for lunch. Culture bound nonsense. Nothing whatsoever to do with IQ.