I've always been curious as to what Abbie's IQ is. She can't put the words mom and dad to associate with her parents but she can associate food with getting food. I know my son when he was a little under a year old he could point to his dad and to me. It seems Abbie's development is all over the place. Is that typical for an ID person? I know very little about any intellectual disabilities and heaven knows the Maasses have not taught anything on it as well.
Would they have even tested her IQ at any of her doctor visits? Is it standard practice to do so with ID individuals?
IQ testing is a fairly involved process. She would have been tested at diagnosis, they would have at least done estimates while in public school, any developmental pediatrician or psychiatrist worth their salt would have pushed for at least periodic testing as she aged, JSA may have at least recommended it.
Asa & Priscilla could have refused all of them, and it wouldn't surprise me if they refused any IQ testing past her diagnosis. My kids have been tested several times via county services, school, and medical professionals just as part of the diagnostic & evaluation processes. No one, like, asked me directly if they could do an IQ test but I guess I could have told them not to ahead of time if I was a piece of shit.
There are nonverbal IQ tests. She'd be observed doing various tasks, responding to prompts, asked to point to things, etc.
It's hard to say what her actual "IQ" is. No one here is in any position to throw out numbers, and an IQ number is only a part of one's intellectual functioning. Abbie is obviously profoundly impaired in many areas. There's no way to definitively say if all of her impairments are a direct result of her intellectual disability or if they're a result of (or compounded by) her home situation.
Like, adaptive skills (ADLs, activities of daily living) are part of the broader intellectual picture. Is she incapable of learning to toilet, is she capable but has never been properly taught to toilet herself, or is it a combination? Is she incapable of pouring herself a cup of juice, is she capable but the skill wasn't taught/maintained, or a combination? Etc.
Her expressive communication is very obviously lacking. She can't speak verbally. Is she incapable of learning other ways to communicate, is she capable (to some degree) but has never been properly taught/maintained, or a combination?
Her receptive communication is...lacking, but actually not awful. She
understands a decent amount a good bit of the time. She may have the expressive communication of a 1 year old, but she may have the receptive communication of a five year old, just to ballpark numbers. How much of that has to do with her home situation in general, though?
The mom & dad thing is actually very common in autistic people. It took a long time for my younger kid to understand that mom = me. My kid was (still is) very attached to me, and sought me out for comfort and help, but if someone asked 'where's mama?' Nope. It took years. They'd physically pull or use my hand rather than call me mama or anything. They knew I was their person but didn't make that relational connection without therapy & constant reinforcement. It was a huge deal when they finally called me mom!!
(and then the sarcastic little shit called me "birth-giver" last week, so that's where things are now.)
Abbie does seem to know that the word dad = Asa & the word mom = Priscilla. We've seen her react appropriately on occasion - Atha told her to go give something to mom, and Abbie did so. She doesn't use the signs or her AAC to refer to them as such, but....is she incapable of doing so, or has that just never been taught and reinforced?
It isn't unusual for development to be all over the place in autistic people.
I've got one with a literal genius-level IQ who has the executive function of a two year old. Their adaptive skills are wildly out of whack. They were (literally) reading at a college level at age 6 but were incapable of properly putting on a shirt and pants. They just built a set of working headphones from component parts but can't quite get through making a pack of instant Ramen without needing help. They can usually put shirts on the right way nowadays but lack the social skills to care if they've done so. They're completely verbal, though have no real ability to communicate appropriately with children their age.
I've got another one with low-normal IQ. They didn't learn to read until age 7, still can't write much more than their first name, have just now gotten to the point of toileting independently, and after a lot of work they can microwave themselves a hot dog or peel a hard boiled egg for lunch. They have learning disabilities including dyslexia. They also have created a tabletop game based on Dungeons & Dragons (their sibling does all the writing), they draw remarkable pictures of Pokémon they've invented, and when they're verbal they do shit like refer to me as "birth-giver" or detail grand, creative stories about goblins and orcs going on adventures. They have no real desire to deal with children their age other than their sibling and their similar-age cousin. They're the kid on the playground sitting alone digging in the dirt, moving away from anyone who approaches them.
Child 1 doesn't have an ID. Their development in some areas is delayed, but it's expected they'll continue to catch up.
Child 2 doesn't officially have an ID at this point. Their team expects they may "level off" in development and intellectual ability and wind up with a mild ID diagnosis in their teen years.
If I handled things like therapy and structure at home differently, if I was more like the Maasses, wouldn't that affect my kids' overall intellectual development? Some of it is baked in. Child 2 definitively needs more support and has a certain "ceiling" when it comes to their development. But if I chose not to focus on things like a structured home life, functional communication, basic skills like toileting and dressing and preparing food, etc their ceiling immediately becomes much lower.
Abbie's ceiling is obviously low. She was never going to graduate from high school with a regular diploma, even with an ideal home situation. She was never going to live independently. But her level of intellectual functioning has been artificially depressed due to her parents.
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