The primary purpose of intelligence tests is to provide a fair and accurate assessment of an individual's performance across various cognitive domains. These tests account for factors such as age and other relevant variables, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation.

Test scores are calculated by comparing them to standardized norms derived from a large sample of children of similar age. This comparison takes into account the natural variability among individuals, resulting in a statistically valid and reliable score.

Therefore, intelligence tests administered at any age are considered accurate and reliable, as they are benchmarked against children at the same developmental stage. These tests offer valuable insights into a child's cognitive abilities and potential.

While the brain undergoes rapid development in early childhood and stabilizes around the age of six, delaying assessments in hopes of a better outcome until after this age does not guarantee better results. This is because assessment outcomes rely on comparisons with peers of the same age. When other children are also at the same stabilized stage of intellectual development, your child’s performance may not stand out.

Generally, for children without learning, behavioral, attention, social, or emotional difficulties, intelligence test results obtained before or after the age of six are relatively consistent, with minimal variation. However, if developmental difficulties have already manifested in early childhood, they may suffer from developmental delays, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), emotional regulation difficulties, or other developmental disorders. Delayed assessment not only may not yield better performance but also increases the likelihood of unstable or poor performance due to existing difficulties. More importantly, it can lead to missed opportunities for early intervention and referral to the Social Welfare Department for follow-up support before the age of six and results in detrimental consequences.

As children grow older, they face increasing challenges in their academic and social lives. Problems can become more complex and difficult to manage, with far-reaching consequences. Therefore, delaying assessment is not appropriate for most cases once a potential problem is brought to light.

The goal of assessment is to evaluate various aspects of children's abilities and to identify difficulties in learning, behavior, attention, social, and emotions, diagnosing whether children suffer from developmental disorders and intervening early. These tests consider age and various factors, and their content and length are designed within reasonable ranges. Normally, test-takers should be capable of completing the tests. The assessment outcomes rely on comparisons with peers of the same age, further explaining that test results do not become inaccurate due to lack of cooperation, as children at the same age face similar circumstances where their performances may be affected by various factors. Although it is understandable that children may be more active or in different states, if these factors indeed affect test accuracy, wouldn't everyone's test performance suffer? This is obviously incorrect. In reality, some individuals within the same age group can perform well, while others may exhibit poor performance due to lack of patience, non-cooperation, reflecting potential difficulties in certain areas that need to be addressed. After all, in real life, children are bound to encounter things they are not interested in or unwilling to do. If unstable performance persists, it will affect children's learning and development progress.

"Underperformance" does not equate to "failure to reflect true abilities"; on the contrary, assessment aims to understand children's strengths and weaknesses and provide the most appropriate support. Understanding the concept of "comparison with same-age peers" in standardized testing will make it clear that the results of these assessments are highly valuable references.

Children being active and playful is a very normal behavior. However, this does not imply that they cannot focus. Difficulty in concentration among children is often associated with arousal state and executive function difficulties, indicating abnormalities in their brain function. In reality, most children are capable of maintaining focus on tasks and learning for a reasonable duration. Through standardized testing, it can be determined whether children experience attention difficulties. Assessment results are then compared with those of same-age peers, elucidating why lack of focus is not considered a normative behavior. Otherwise, most children would demonstrate suboptimal performance in attention tests. However, this is not the case. When compared to same-age data, test-takers are at the same stage of cognitive development. Some may exhibit normal attention abilities, while others may struggle with concentration, yet they can still be lively and active children.

In early childhood, given the relatively low academic demands, attention issues may not significantly impact children. However, as they mature and encounter greater academic and life challenges, the ramifications of attention issues become more evident, and disparities in abilities with same-age peers become more pronounced. Without appropriate intervention, these issues typically do not ameliorate with age. Instead, they often persist, exerting a detrimental influence on children's learning and development.

For some cases of mild developmental delay or abnormalities, there is a chance that symptoms may lessen or gradually catch up to the level of same-age peers as abilities develop. However, this scenario is uncommon. It requires parents to be familiar with developmental milestones and have a certain understanding of different developmental disorders such as speech delay, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and emotional regulation difficulties to discern whether children are simply lagging behind in the early stages of development or have more serious developmental disorders. It also involves closely monitoring the child's developmental progress and possibly providing training to enhance relevant skills. However, without objective criteria and peer comparison data, it is challenging to accurately judge and determine whether a child's developmental progress meets the standard based solely on daily observations.

More importantly, delayed assessment may cause children to miss the opportunity for early intervention and referral to follow-up services from the Social Welfare Department before the age of six. Therefore, if children experience difficulties in learning, behavior, attention, social, or emotions during early childhood, assessment should be conducted promptly to seize the critical period of development before the age of six and intervene early, preventing problems from worsening and ensuring that their abilities do not fall far behind those of their peers.

There are two main misconceptions in the above statement:

1. Sensory Integration (感統) Therapy is one of the treatment options for sensory processing problems rather than a name of the disorder. Therefore, "Sensory integration problems" is a misconception while the correct term would be Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD).

2. Sensory processing disorder is commonly found in children with ASD or ADHD, while it does not cause ASD or ADHD, it has a variety of possible causes.

This is an important misconception to correct because parents may immediately turn to Sensory Integration Therapy without thoroughly understanding their child's situation. However, Sensory Integration Therapy is one of the solutions for resolving sensory processing difficulties, but it is not the only treatment. Depending on the underlying causes and mechanisms of the problem, there will be different treatment methods. For instance, it can be caused by deficits in different brain functions and neural systems, such as executive function disorders, deficits in arousal and inhibition systems, etc. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately identify the root cause of the problems to determine the most appropriate therapeutic approach.