Sorry the kiddos are ages approx 8 to 18 years. Only a few kiddos came from email listservs. Most came from two major hospital facilities in my area ( Shriner's and A I duPont Hospital for Children). However, some came from the Philly School District, THR center, and sled hockey teams. I went through four IRBs. I attempted to go through two more, Boston, MA and Chelsea, MA school district, but had trouble with both (lack of cooperation).
I attempted to have a good cross section, but it is still a sample of convenience.
As for IQ I did have kiddos that were probably above average intelligence, the parents reported that they were, but I grouped them with those kiddos with average intelligence. I did not do any IQ testing myself as that was not the focus of this study.
I relied on parents report according to IEP or other school documentation for level of intelligence. This was not a good way in retrospect as some of the parents reported that their child had average intelligence, but parental report in many cases was doubtful:
1.. The child would answer the questions all true or false with no responses in between. The child with mild MR would answer this way and there are research studies to prove this. However, the child with average intelligence would answer the questions using all five possibilities on the true/false scale.
2.. The child's educational placement would be more restricted and not due to environmental/behavioral concerns. For example, the child was mainstreamed only for "specials" or in a full time special class/ full day special class. The school district that the child was in favors inclusion too.
3.. Lastly, there were only 16 kiddos with mild mental retardation out of 104. It is very unlikely according to probability that the rest of the children all had average intelligence or above average intelligence following the rule of 1/3. The rule of 1/3 comes from neuropsychologists/neurologists/physicians who have worked with children with CP. They are the ones who have determined the split of intelligence levels in children with CP.
Because of the doubts that I mentioned above, I will be relying on educational placement and not parental report for level of intelligence.
I hope this helps some. I have tried to explain my reasonings here, but in email format it is difficult. I have many citations to support my different lines of reasoning and am trying to write the best possible paper. I am a very diligent and persistent student, you can ask my committee members.....
Greta
----- Original Message -----
From: Kathleen Salkin<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: now greta's stats
OK, let's look at Greta's research population - I believe she is
looking at a very small segment of the CP population - 6 to 8-year-
olds, and probably has a narrow sample to work with. It *is* rather
difficult to get a true sampling of such a research population if one
is limited by geographic location and also dependent on responses
from email lists, etc. (i.e., only those parents with internet
access would be able to respond, not every parent of a CP child).
It's the same problem with obtaining a truly random population
sampling from a phone book -- that is, only those with listed phone
numbers would have been called (although nowadays that's gotten
around by using automatic diallers).
In any case, I consider the Stanford-Benet IQ only one indicator of
how well a person will do in life; in fact, in the past few years,
social scientists have talked about several types of IQ's, not just
the Stanford-Benet, which is a limited measure of how well we retain
knowledge. I can't remember offhand how many there are, but I do
recall reading that two of the most important are an emotional
ability and a resilience ability, and that all these quotients are
best studied in conjunction with each other as how well an individual
functions in society, not as isolated indicators.
Kat
On 8 Jan 2006, at 09:19, Trisha Cummings wrote:
> Dear Bobby,
>
> Well, she threw out any above average intelligence CPers. So I
> don't see the validity in her stats. Amber - who has CP. Also has a
> genius level IQ. I gather the folks like Amber and you ( and
> several others I can't name everyone) are outliers and have been
> tossed. It seems her stats don't allow for the full range of
> intellectual possibilities. Her stats from where I stand are
> meaningless. It would also help to remember our intelligence tests
> are based on how many you can cram in your brain and spit back. not
> really on any ability to think or use you brain power. Average
> intelligence last time I looked about 100. And the rule of thirds?
> Okay in intelligence with scale I think it works on the bell curve
> with the very mentally slow on end and the very mentally
> illuminated on the other and the vast majority falling inside the
> bell with 100 in the middle. I am with Brent the resident crank.
> And you know what I am writing grad paper number 3 - and nothing so
> far as impressed me in the process as to the quality of the paper
> people turn out. I am working on one now about assistive technology
> in the educational field. What amazes me is the one size fits all
> answer they are looking for.
>
> Trisha
>
>
>
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