Factors Defining IQ Scores

 

Before I can explain or describe the factors which influence IQ scores across the lifespan I must first define what the term IQ means. IQ are the initials for Intelligence Quotient. Alfed Binet first came up with a test which was not intended to test intelligence, he meant to simply have it be a practical devise for the practical reason of determining how a child is developing. After all, testing does not really test intelligence. Any test can only provide a rough estimate of an individuals intelligence.

 Binet's original test was simply for providing a guide in how or what direction instructors were to go in order to assist a child in learning. His test was never meant to be given to "normal" children. It was meant to assist in special training to improve skills which were lacking. Unfortunately we Americans took what he began and changed it into a test for all individuals and turned it into the Stanford-Binet test. It is the mental age divided by the chronological age and thus giving the IQ scores of the Stanford-Binet which are determined by a normal curve with a standard deviation. The maximum score is a 150. The normal range falls between 85 to 115. Anything below 70 is considered to be a determination of developmental delay. Scores above 130 are considered to be of the gifted.

Now that I have briefly explained what IQ is, I shall describe some of the factors which can and do influence the IQ across the lifespan.

We are all born yet we are not born equal. At birth there are factors which have predisposed an infant to having differing levels of intelligence (capability to gain knowledge). Genes and heredity can and do have an affect. Whether the mother took harmful substances such as drugs and alcohol are factors. An infant born with a low apgar score may later have a lower IQ score. Most commonly due to a lack of oxygen which causes brain cells to die. As an infant grows into a child the stimuli that is presented to that infant will have an affect on the IQ score. An infant who is not cuddled and is left in his/her crib alone all the time will develop a lower IQ than the infant who is stimulated with the caregivers attention, with toys, and the voices of others.

However IQ levels can change. A child with a very high IQ at the age of 10 may not exhibit a high IQ at the age of 15 in respect to his/her peers, and visa versa. A child with a low IQ may have a higher score later on in life.

Children tend to have higher IQ scores than adults do. As an adult ages their IQ scores may drop. An elderly individual when tested will exhibit a lower score than what he/she exhibited in younger years. This is mainly due to the slowing of the firing of the neurons with age. It is all relevant to their peer levels.

It should be kept in mind that IQ scores are not what intelligence is. An individual can score low on an IQ test and yet have great intelligence. The IQ test is only a rough estimate and a poor one at that for it can often be biased. There are many variables which can bias the scores. All children develop at different rates. The motor scale, mental scale, and behavior scale all need to be taken into consideration. Though a child's IQ score stabilizes around age 4 there is a wide range of variance by comparison to their peers. The environment (as was mentioned earlier) can decrease or increase the outcome. The more that is offered to a child the more that is proffered. A child whose parents provides them with private lessons, music, and other skills will no doubt score higer than the children whose parents cannot provide such luxuries. Children in 3^rd world countries who live lives closed off to other cultures and education will exhibit a lower IQ. Are they less intelligent? No, they are just as intelligent, they just have not had opportunities.

I would like to share a personal rendition of why IQ scores differ from intelligence.

I had a son born with neurofibromatosis and severe heart problems. I provided an environment rich with stimuli. This child was given all I could give both physically and monetarily and spiritually. The doctors told me that he would not live to see his first birthday due to his heart. At eleven months he still had not learned to eat and I had been tube feeding him. He could not sit alone. He was yet to roll let alone scoot or crawl. While everyone was telling me he would die soon I took him to the Child Development Center in Idaho Falls. There I held him on my lap while they let him participate in their little groups. I built him a scooter for him to lay on while he learned to crawl. Because his neck was too weak to hold up his head I built the scooter in the shape of a turtle and we called it his tortoise. I taught him the motions of crawling even as he rested his head on the tortoises head. At 2 ½ years he started to scoot and roll on the floor and at 3 years he was crawling. (He took his first steps alone when he was seven.)

While attending at the Child Development Center the psychologist there administer an IQ test. Though almost three my son had not yet learned to talk and was being taught sign language, but the test required verbal answers. My son only scored a 42 and I was informed that my son had severe developmental delay. It frustrated me as a parent that individuals who were suppose to be so intelligent that they could administer IQ tests and invent the stupid things could be so unaware of true intelligence. I knew that they were wrong. I knew that my son was very intelligent. When he was two we had gotten him an electric wheelchair. I had taught him to maneuver it by tying a string to the joist stick with which I could control the chair. I then placed his hand onto the joist stick and asked him to keep his hand there. I took him out on the quiet country road where we lived and we went for a half a mile walk with me controlling the chair with the string. At the end of our walk he had mastered the skill of steering the motorized chair. When it came to learning sign language he was so smart that he invented a whole slew of his own signs and I could not keep up with him. Once he was given the freedom of movement I learned that he was very intelligent. I would ask something of his older sibling and before this older brother could get it my handicapped son would be there in his chair. He was very intelligent.

The problem with equating IQ scores with intelligence is that it causes labeling. Once a child is labeled everyone treats them that way. The psychologist who tested my son could not see past the test scores. However I could. My son died at the age of 13 never having learned to read nor ever having mastered oral speech. Was he intelligent? Yes you bet he was very intelligent. When something was misplaced around the house he always knew where it was. If a friend needed cheering up he always knew how to do it. He had great social skills… just not the ones in the IQ test.

After all intelligence is knowledge and truth not some score from some biased test that can't take into consideration handicaps, races, culture, nor language differences. My son had tons of knowledge about medical procedures and illness and what it is like to be different. True intelligence is knowing that God lives and using that knowledge to help ones self and to help those around ones self. The scientific men of the world will never be able to equate intelligence with their IQ tests for they have left the valuable variable of the spirit out of their IQ tests. This important factor of spirit in human intelligence is left untested. So to the human spirit which keeps us all going when things get tough, when battles of health make the IQ test scores fall, and to that spirit of never quitting… I give a score of 130+.