Intelligence Assessments for Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology
Yin Foo, R., Guppy, M., et al. (2013).
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 55(10), 911-918.
This systematic review investigates population-specific psychometric properties and clinical utility of intelligence (IQ) assessment tools for children, 4 to 18-years-old, with cerebral palsy (CP).
Research & Innovation Unit of the Cerebral Palsy League (Australia)
1970-July 31, 2012
Published, English-language studies (not further specified)
83
<div>There is a lack of appropriate standardized tests available for children with minimal motor participation, and both communication and visual impairments. In such cases, other methods of evaluating the child's cognitive abilities must be used (e.g., observations across environments).</div>
<div>Due to lack of agreement of validity, lack of reliability data, and limited clinical utility, "population-specific psychometric data for these assessments and the assessment selection process are in need of improvement.... While there are standardized [intelligence] IQ assessments available that are potentially suitable for children and young people with [cerebral palsy] CP, at this time individual assessments should be used and interpreted with caution" (p. 916).</div>
<div>Despite a large corpus of studies included in the review, there is a lack of sound, population-specific, psychometric data on the cognitive assessments used to evaluate children with cerebral palsy. Moreover, the standardized procedures of these assessments are not appropriate for children with more severe motor, communication, and/or visual impairments. Therefore, the cognitive abilities of these children are likely to be underestimated by these assessments. In order to achieve a valid [intelligence] IQ assessment of a child with [cerebral palsy] CP, the child's motor, communication, and visual function must be taken into consideration and matched with an IQ assessment that would not penalize possible deficits in those skills</div>
