Verbal prowess equals higher IQ: Implications for evaluating autism

This study evaluated the clinical utility of the Stanford-Binet-5 (SB-5) in assessing individuals suspected of having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Comparisons were made between individuals with and without autism (AD), with or without comorbid mental retardation. Differences in score profiles were discovered based on AD and mental retardation (MR) status. Score differences were then evaluated using VIQ as a covariate. Findings suggested that verbal ability has a large influence on scores, even within the nonverbal subtests. Discriminant analysis revealed that SB-5 scores could predict group membership with 52.9% accuracy among the four groups, and with 82.6% accuracy when determining between MR and MR with AD.