IQ in HFA (not AS)

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I think a whole lot of people, across the spectrum, and NT as well, can be confounded by those weird little puzzles.

My IQ is 91 but it didnt stop me from getting a biology degree as I am good at understanding concepts and ideas and I have an absorbant fact memory and a good verbal memory.

Though I failed the one calculus paper I had to take, lol.

I think the IQ test measures a type of intelligence, but it isnt the type I have.

The DSM-IV-TR states the differences between AS and "HFA" are:

AS:
all encompassing single interest (biology, trains, comics, etcetera)
severe social impairment but "appears" to seek out social interaction, albeit clumsily

"HFA":
interest is usually accompanied by motor mannerisms (rocking/spinning to music), rituals (playing/reading/watching whatever it is in the same way each time), or a focus on parts of objects (liking how a door opens and closes; listening to the same several seconds of a song over and over again)
marked distress to change
severe social impairment but "appears" more aloof to interaction than AS, i.e., self-isolation, or markedly rigid approaches

and it then goes on to state that differentiating the two disorders can be problematic in some cases.

Naturally, you'll probably find many people diagnosed with AS will be a bit of both.

I don't know my official IQ other than my verbal is 78, and my performance is "high".

I just had an interesting thought.

Perhaps the "performance IQ" is actually a measure of spatial thinking and mathematical thinking.

Many of those puzzles involve visualising shapes etc and a sort of logic.

Im suggesting this because the other aspie I know with a low performance IQ (81) gets lost walking down the street, yet performed well academically.

I dont get lost as easily, as I like maps, but I regularly forget where I am. I dont like crossing the street though.

Yeah, performance is visio-spatial/mathematical/logical ability.

I'm good at finding the next funny colored block looking thingy in sequence; not good at reading large blocks of text.

Putting an IQ requirement into diagnosing ASDs is a narrow view, and wasn't thought out. At least not for the long-term.

If I score low, I'm Autistic Disorder. If I score high, I'm an Aspie. [sarcasm]Of course, this is all unrelated to actually exhibiting symptoms of one spectrum disorder and not another.[/sarcasm] It's not only inaccurate, but also ineffective, and harmful in the long run.

People need the help they need, not the help they don't need, or the help they aren't being given. If ANYONE isn't getting help that they need and deserve, because they were wrongly diagnosed by someone more concerned with numbers and just how smart people are, that's a travesty. When people are being diagnosed inaccurately, because the diagnoser is more concerned with the numbers, rather than the person themselves, this is an affront to those who trust in the system.

If the focus of ASDs is put into IQ, it's one aspect of a person being taken as the be all and end all. Is judging someone on their IQ really that far from judging someone by the colour of their skin?

So im below 70 on my IQ what does that mean, i dont know how IQ works.?