ALJ Finds TONI "Inflated"
December 18, 2011
Author: Catherine M. Callery (Kate)| Louise M. Tarantino
Buffalo Bruce Caulfield of Neighborhood Legal Services has scored a victory for a client with borderline intellectual functioning. The claimant had been tested on two separate occasions with a TONI (Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence) IQ test, which is generally considered a screening test. Bruce has frequently argued that the TONI is not a good substitute for the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), which is considered a more comprehensive assessment of verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning than the TONI. See the September 2011 edition of the Disability Law News, available at www.empirejustice.org.
In a recent case, an ALJ agreed with Bruce, acknowledging that “TONI scores tend to be somewhat inflated compared the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.” He accepted the TONI score of 75 in this case, combined with tests of adaptive functioning demonstrating that the claimant was functioning in the mentally retarded range, to conclude that Bruce’s client was within the borderline range of intellectual functioning. As a result, he found that her ability to work at all exertional levels was so compromised by her non-exertional impairments and that she was unable to work.
Congratulations to Bruce, who once again demonstrates that if you keep hammering away, someone eventually listens.
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