If I ever get a degree in psychology/social work, etc.....I want to research testing for intelligence without or with minimal use of language. I think that there are an awful lot of autistics and other non-verbal or verbally impaired people and species who are being sold short.

If we were to encounter on other planets, animals similar to the ones we have here, or a species which did not have a verbal language that we could relate to, would we assume that they were "dumb, stupid beasts?" Would we feel entitled to annihilate them as we have so many animal and plant species?