Although a range of criteria are used to identify intellectual disability, most clinical tools employ intelligence quotient (IQ) tests to determine whether or not a person has a disability. Most IQ tests are designed to conform to a normal distribution over the population – so that, for example, the results of IQ testing over a population will mean around two per cent of the population have an IQ of 70 or less (and two per cent of the population have an IQ of 130 or more). This means that definitions for ‘intellectual disability’ based solely on IQ tests provide an assessment of a person’s ability to answer questions or solve problems in relation to other people, rather than assessing a person’s behavioural or adaptive abilities. This may mean that, for example, people who for all practical purposes have similar capacities to cope in the community may be assessed differently in terms of intellectual disability. IQ scores are used to categorise a person as having a mild, moderate, severe or profound intellectual disability. Intellectual capacity, social skill and ability to perform core activities such as self-care, communication and mobility vary considerably across the spectrum of mild to profound disability. Table 5 outlines the IQ cut-off points for mild, moderate, severe and profound intellectual disability defined in clinical diagnostic tools. Table 5: IQ cut-off points defined in clinical diagnostic tools. 101 DSM-IV ICD-10 Mild IQ between 50-55 and 70 IQ between 50-69 Moderate IQ between 35-40 and 50-55 IQ between 35-49 Severe IQ between 25 and 34-40 IQ between 20-34 Profound IQ under 25 IQ under 20
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 03:32:40 +0000
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