Are parents accurate reporters of their child's cognitive abilities?

Examined parent's ability to accurately report their child's cognitive functioning. Participants were 145 children and their parents referred to an outpatient mental health clinic for cognitive testing. Parent reports were measured using Likert ratings designed for research and clinical purposes. Children's cognitive abilities were measured using the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery - Revised (Woodcock, 1989) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition (Wechsler, 1991). For boys, parental reports of general cognitive ability, fluid reasoning, comprehension-knowledge, visual processing, auditory processing, and acquisition and retrieval were significantly related to performance-based measurements of these same traits, and parental report of boys' fluid reasoning and visual processing ability evidenced specificity. For girls, parental report of general cognitive ability, fluid reasoning, visual processing, and auditory processing were significantly related to performance-based measurements of these same traits, and parental reports of girls visual processing and auditory processing evidenced specificity. These findings suggest areas where clinicians can be more confident of parental report of children's cognitive abilities and other areas where clinicians should be wary of parental report.