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Abstract
A diagnosis of intellectual disability is a momentous event that can determine eligibility for special services and supportive sources of income, and in the criminal arena, it can be a matter of life and death. For criminal defendants who might otherwise face capital punishment, it is a matter of life and death. Individuals evaluated for intellectual disability often have been given multiple intelligence tests, sometimes with results falling on both sides of the diagnostic threshold. In all cases, the diagnostic decision must be based on a rigorous examination of the totality of evidence in the context of systematic clinical judgment. When multiple IQ results are relevant and comparable, they can be combined into a properly computed composite score to assist the clinician charged with diagnostic responsibility in determining if Prong 1, deficits in intellectual functioning, of the three-prong criteria necessary for an intellectual disability diagnosis has been met. Best psychometrically grounded methods for these calculations are presented along with a discussion of inappropriate approaches for accurately combining multiple scores. To make these methods accessible to professionals outside the discipline of psychology, all calculations are fully explained in the context of foundational concepts.
