IQ-tested children should be re-examined

Children kindergartensChildren. Photo: pixabay.com

An unknown number of children and young people in Norway have been diagnosed with mild mental retardation, even though they are not. – Embarrassing for the society, believes a neuropsychologist.

This is due to a fault with an IQ test that PP (educational psychology services) and the child and adolescent psychiatry used to investigate, among other learning disabilities among 7 year olds, writes TV2.

The test WISC III was a tool to diagnose among other things, mild mental retardation, and was used on several thousand children during the period from 2003 to 2009.

One of those who raised the alarm was neuropsychologist Tor Herman Andreassen. He saw that many of his patients had a much lower IQ score in relation to how they otherwise functioned.

– There is a great danger that some have been diagnosed with mild mental retardation, where WISC III has been a major contributor, and they should not have had the diagnosis, he said.

Those it apply to have not been informed.

– No. It’s embarrassing for our society. That no one has gone after this and looked at it again, says Andreassen.

No one can say how many children may be affected.

– I can’t exclude the fact that this could have happened, but we have no idea of ​​how many, says Jens Egeland, head of the Test Policy committee for the Norwegian Psychological Association.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today