Chad Boulton, age 12, of Dayton, Ohio, for his question:
WHAT EXACTLY IS AN IQ?
IQ is the abbreviation for intelligence quotient, a number used as a measurement of how smart a person is. The number is based on a comparison of a person's score on an intelligence test with the scores of others who have taken the same test.
Psychologists and educators use IQ tests to determine a child's mental age. This results show the child's level of understanding and performance.
An IQ test is made up of a series of mental checks, including tasks involving memory, reasoning, definitions, numerical ability and recalling facts.
Psychologists have worked out the age at which most children can correctly answer each question of an IQ test. When a 9 year old child can define certain words, figure out relationships of words and ideas, solve arithmetic problems and remember certain facts that an average 9 year old can, he is said to have the mental age of 9.
If the 9 year old can answer questions usually expected from a child of 10 or 11, he has a higher mental age and is given a higher IQ score.
An IQ is sometimes determined by dividing mental age with actual age and then multiplying the result by 100 to avoid fractions. An IQ of 100 indicates an average score for a person's age level.
A 4 year old with a mental age of 6, for example, has an IQ of 150. This is established by dividing six by four and multiplying by 100. A 10 year old boy with a mental age of 8 has an IQ of 80.
The first modern intelligence test was developed 84 years ago in 1905 by two French psychologists, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon.
A psychologist by the name of Lewis Terman revised the Binet Simon testing 1916. Then two psychologists at Stanford University in California, Terman and Maude Merrill, came up with more revisions in 1937 and 1960. These versions are called the Re vised Stanford Binet tests.
Some educators and psychologists oppose using IQ tests for grouping children. They strongly believe that to label a child "slow" might actually slow his learning ability.
Often parents and teachers who encourage learning may help a child to boost his IQ test scores as he grows older. On the other hand, often a child in an inferior school scores lower and lower over the years.
Malnutrition in early years can also make some children score low, proving that IQ can depend on both heredity and environment.