IQ of Children - Free

Originally, testing the IQ of children was for the single purpose of identifying those who may have needed some extra help with their academics, or to determine if a child had serious developmental delays or disabilities such as mental retardation.

The very first IQ (intelligence quotient) tests were based on the actual age of the child to be tested, much as they are now, but with a different, much simpler formula in place to calculate the results using both mental and chronological age, or to be exact, the person's mental age divided by their chronological age times 100.

These early tests were soon being criticized for not being able to take into consideration a number of other factors that may contribute toward, or diminish, one's perceived intelligence level and today, IQ tests include separate areas that are all scored independently of one another before being added together to get the final, end result. Now, IQ tests, also referred to as intelligence scales, involve several sub-sections covering subjects such as mathematics, vocabulary, comprehension, reasoning, and general knowledge.

An average IQ is considered to be 100, and as one would imagine, studies do show that kids who have either average or above average scores on IQ tests are able to learn and retain more in school than their lower scoring peers. However, this doesn't mean that if your child's score isn't as high as you'd hoped it would be that there's nothing you can do to increase their IQ.

Now through continued research on the subject, it is also known that several environmental factors can influence a child's score and that even being breastfed as an infant can increase one's IQ. Also, exposure to music, the arts, and engaging in various strategy, puzzle, or mind games may all help to increase a child's IQ.

Testing a child's intelligence quotient may actually be rather beneficial over the long term as not only will it give you as a parent an idea as to where your child may be developmentally, but it will also allow you to keep track of their progress should you decide to test them again as they grow older.

It's also important to remember that one's IQ may not stay the same throughout their lifetime, which is why age is taken into consideration making it essential to use a test that's geared toward your child's specific age.

Finding the IQ of children is always a challenge because of the great diversity which exists between them. Not only will their culture affect their IQ, but also the upbringing of the child itself could have a strong effect on their intelligence.

Supposedly, an IQ test is meant to overcome this as it is 'supposed' to have neutral questions which challenge children's intelligence rather than knowledge. However, in reality, the outcome can be very different.

If children are challenged at home by their parents then it is far more likely that their knowledge will be increased and that they will also be far more stimulated. These two things do have an effect on a child's intelligence. So much so, in fact that there is a strong arguement to be put forward that there should be different tests done on children for different areas of the community.

The problem with this arguement though, is that not having one standard test would take away from the ability to do direct comparisons between children and statistical correlations would have to be taken into account.