Naomi Burton, 14, who has cerebral palsy, and her twin sister Carina yesterday observed Cherie Booth QC performing a colourful three dimensional IQ test at the opening of Scope's new national offices in Islington yesterday.

Ms Booth took part in a 'Block Design Test' - one of the sub-tests used in standard IQ testing - as part of a tour of the charity's new facilities. The sub test assesses non-verbal reasoning and spatial visualisation. It is particularly sensitive in demonstrating the difficulties people with cerebral palsy have with spatial awareness.

After completing the test Cherie Booth said: 'I was impressed that a test which took under a minute, can have a lifetime effect by feeding into the quality of somebody's education. The 30 second test shows that some highly intelligent Children's rights can still have perceptual difficulties, which educators often fail to appreciate.'

As a Barrister, Cherie Booth has provided legal support to several clients of Scope, for example Naomi Burton. Naomi, who lives in Torquay, sought advice from Scope's Advisory and Assessment Service two years ago, concerning educational arrangements that were necessary because of her specific learning difficulties with visual perception.

Mike Davies, Scope's Educational Psychologist, who explained the test said: 'Many people with cerebral palsy experience this neurological difficulty, which interferes with how they interpret information from visual teaching materials. This is not to do with visual acuity but visual perception. In such cases It would take them much longer to complete this task, which an average 8 year old can do in just 20 seconds.'

Cherie Booth and the twins were among sixty guests who were taken on a detailed tour of Scope's new national offices. They were shown many of the special features of the building, which is designed to offer greater access to disabled visitors and staff.

notes for editors