Level of intelligence and social quotient among children with autism spectrum disorders

Pages: 1458-1460
K. G. Dhanesh (Clinical Psychologist, CRC for persons with disabilities, Kozhikode)
S. Karthikeyan (Lecturer in Rehab. Psychology NIEPMD, Chennai)

Autism is widely regarded to be the most severe of the childhood psychiatric conditions. It is a developmental disorder and is diagnosed on the basis of abnormal social development, abnormal communicative development, and the presence of narrow, restricted interests and repetitive activity, along with limited imaginative ability. The symptoms are usually evident by the age of three years. All the levels of IQ can occur in autism, but there is significant mental retardation in some three-quarters of the cases. The present study was to find out the relationship between Level of Intelligence & Social Quotient among children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with regards to severity of the condition. The results shows while severity of Autism increases, the level of intelligence is found to be reduced and there is strong positive correlation between level of intelligence and social quotient among children with ASD.