The Intelligence Quotient, also know as IQ, is an interesting, yet often misunderstood concept, especially in childhood. IQ in its purest sense is a measure of someone's ability to engage in complex problem solving in both the verbal and the visual domains. IQ also includes the concepts of processing speed and working memory. In childhood, IQ becomes an important aspect of understanding how each individual child learns. As such, knowing your child's IQ and his or her intellectual strengths and weaknesses can assist in understanding his or her learning style.
History
Personality and IQ testing originally came from the armed services and educators. Military officials needed a way to quickly assess a person's characteristics and intelligence to place them properly. During World War I, a team of psychologists headed by Robert Yerkes developed individual IQ testing for army personnel. On the academic front, in 1916 Alfred Binet in France in 1916 created one of the earliest IQ tests. Binet, an educational planner in the French school system, believed his test placed children in the correct class based on intellectual aptitude. As such, he conducted research and field studies to test his hypothesis, leading to his test eventually becoming the commonly used Stanford-Binet IQ test.
What Makes Up A Childhood IQ Test?
Child IQ tests cover a variety of domains. Verbal tests examine basic skills such as vocabulary and abstraction abilities. Nonverbal measures are also included on IQ tests. These measures look at a child's performance in regard to processing visual information and creating problem-solving strategies based on visual components. Underlying most subtests, both verbal and visual, of a child's IQ are the concepts of processing speed and working memory. These functions determine how quickly children solve problems as well as how long they can hold new information in their brain for later use.
IQ and Learning Style
A thorough IQ test can give indications to your child's learning style. Among the most commonly used IQ tests is the Wechsler series. This test gives information regarding verbal skills and visual skills, also called performance abilities. After obtaining this information, parents can compare their child's verbal and visual styles and then apply that to learning. For example, a child with a high verbal IQ will be more likely to excel in subjects based on language and written expression. By contrast, a child with a higher performance IQ is more likely to be a visual learner.
Misconceptions
Though IQ does indeed provide a valid measure of different skill sets, it is important to remember that IQ provides no information regarding a child's personality or emotional status. This is important because learning may be interrupted by childhood depression or anxiety. Additionally, ambition and desire to succeed based on family expections or personal goals may not be reflected in an IQ test. Remember that standardized IQ tests such as the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler series test cognitively based intelligence. Though the research remains unclear, some studies suggest other types of intelligence based in emotional understanding may also exist.
Benefits
Despite the fact that an IQ test may not provide information regarding the role of emotions in learning, the benefits lie in better understanding your child's learning style. This information can be applied to study techniques, as well as help shape future career goals. IQ also provides a sense of your child's intellectual aptitude. This can be a very useful piece of information because it can help parents in shaping realistic academic goals for their child.
References
- "WISC-IV Administration and Scoring Manual"; David Wechsler; 2003.
- "Handbook of Psychological Assessment"; Gary Groth-Marnat; 2003
