Amazing how some kids pick things up...
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I think a lot of people think that having a high IQ is a very valued attribute and thus claim to have a high IQ in order to impress. What people don?t seem to realize is that IQ is not an interval scale i.e. like a ruler, getting higher in equal measures. Instead IQ is a comparison scale, it compares your score to others.
About 50% of the population have an IQ between 90 and 110 making this level of IQ normal. A further 46 % have either a high IQ from 111-130 or a low IQ between 89 and 70. Only 2% have an IQ below 70 (classed as a learning disability) and 2% or 2 in a 100 people have an IQ above 130. An IQ above 148 would place you in the top 1 out of 1000 people.
However a high IQ isn?t always a good thing. Gladwell describes how Chris Langan?s life has been one of underachievement, he now lives on a farm looking after animals with a relatively quiet life. Gladwell also looked at a long term study of a group of very high IQ kids who had been followed up. They also hadn?t done that well.
Gladwell argues that whilst a higher than average IQ predicts good education etc beyond a certain point (about 120) ?having additional IQ points doesn?t seem to translate into real world advantage? (p79).
In my clinical practice I have only rarely seen children with an IQ over 130 and those that I have seen seem to have found it difficult. They tended to be socially isolated partly because they couldn?t relate to their peers. But also a good proportion of these children had a social communication disorder (Asperger?s syndrome).
In a way a very high IQ is abnormal. Only a very few people have it and there must be some odd process in development/evolution for it to occur. It doesn?t seem to give any particular benefit and often is associated with difficulties. So my advice is to be careful in wishing for a very high IQ for you or your child in this regard it is probably better to be average or high average.
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ADG