Psychometric Scatter in Retarded, Autistic Preschoolers as Measured by the Cattell

Abstract

To determine whether psychometric scatter is characteristic of the developmental profile of young autistic children, the performance of 38 autistic children, as measured by the Cattell, was compared with the performance of MA matched samples of normal, Down's Syndrome and non‐Down's Syndrome children with mental retardation. Results indicated significantly more psychometric scatter in die autistic group than in the other groups. Similarly, 66% of the autistic‐children vs 13, 26 and 32% of the normal, Down's and non‐Down's samples, respectively, had significant scalier, Further analyses revealed that autistic children showed consistent relative strength in non‐language and weakness in language.