Aspies and Intelligence

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I agree with Bloodheart on this one. If I could verbalize what I'm actually thinking without tripping over my words my entire life would be very different. Plus, when I learn something, it takes me longer to grasp it but when I finally do I know it well enough to tutor the ones that struggle with it. My teachers always told me I could teach anything to anyone, and always just thought I was lazy or on drugs cause I couldn't pass their class. When I "took notes" in high school, it would appear as if I wasn't paying attention and just doodling on paper, but when challenged by teachers I could always explain what they were talking about in my own words that showed an understanding on the same level as them. The pictures I drew helped me remember what was talked about and kept me focused on the lecture. We are different, no better, no worse, just different.

I'm at least gifted and I am increasingly aware of how much this is not true for me. I have picked up social rules over the years, but have trouble applying some of them, don't care about some of them, and only notice when many are explicitly pointed out or I go looking to find out what people are talking about.

Also, check out kfisherx's "Social Skills Training for Adults" thread. She's also gifted and very successful professionally, and she hasn't picked up a lot in the way of social rules either.

As far as stims go, I rock, flap, flick my fingers, stare at lights, toe walk, and others, and as I said above, I'm gifted.

Also, even though I was speaking in sentences at 13 months, I sometimes have issues putting my thoughts into verbal words. Someone who saw me yesterday afternoon as I was around my therapist could very well assume I'm not intelligent at all because I could barely get any words out at all, and what I did get out was with obvious difficulty.

Plus there's the fact that I somehow missed enough basic life skills that I seriously suck at things that most people are expected to be competent at.

They may be specialist of autism, but not of giftedness; They propably have no idea what a high intelligence mean and can bring.

Apparently I learned social things quite well. I just stopped bothering.

I don't think of having high intelligence as quite the same thing as being smart...

I know a lot of people think I am stupid. I often have an IQ higher than their's but because of my quirks and my awkwardness all they can see is a loser standing before them.

But you also have autistic people who have been tested as having high IQs who say it wasn't true for them.

Yeah, that DEFINITELY isn't true for me!

"I've heard the theory that having higher intelligence allows someone on the spectrum to learn social rules that someone with lower intelligence never picks up on. I don't know if I really buy it but it's possible."

- I take "learn social rules" in that statement to mean initially realising some sort of rules might apply - then thru careful observation and research developing an appropriate response that fits the situation - de facto meets any rules that might exist. That whole process is quite lengthy.


"I've asked two autism specialists whether this is possible, and they're both of the opinion that this is very unlikely (without intensive intervention to help the person learn social rules)."

- I might be entirely wrong but my take on that is that those specialists are taking "learn social rules" to mean intuitively come to recognise them - ain't gonna happen - so in that respect they're right - but in misunderstanding what ACTUALLY happens (surprise surprise) they're actually WRONG.

And also many who say this is their case... Clearly not a absolute true, it may also depend on a lot of things. A friendly environment for example, would certainly help. There is also the way autism manifest itself (which is varying a LOT). Learning difficulies. The stress level also... (Things are much more difficult when there is a lot of stress in my life, that I know all too well I will never go back to CEGEP. )
To note there is some highly intelligent NT who really suck when it come to social rules, because they experience didn't include learning them. (Even though they able to learn them much more easilly and intuitivelly that us.)

Still, a high intelligence give rate and ease of learning baffling a lot of peoples, and those two autism specialists may underestimate it.

I don't know how much my intelligence helped me, but I tend to thing that in some way it did. Then again my official IQ is not that high to begin with... (And my social skills are still too low to prevent my life to suck. )