Aspergers Questions

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My husband recently diagnosed AS took an online IQ test and scored 70 ! I talked through it with him and discovered that he had great difficulty interpreting the questions. Once I reworded them he was able to answer without any problem. I am amazed that it has taken 11 years of knowing my husband to realise these difficulties.

Also, he jerks in his sleep. Particularly early on his sleeping. I haven't really stayed awake to see how long, but I can definitely say one hour at least. There is twitching, squeezing fingers, raising hand. There always seems to be something moving on his body. I wondered if this had any connection to his Aspergers or perhaps totally unrelated.

Be careful about IQ tests, especially online tests. Autism creates some very specific issues that can make IQ tests very inaccurate assessment tools.

What would be best is to find someone that specializes in adults with autism. They can give him a full evaluation and help him develop strategies that build on his strengths and minimize his issues. That hard part is finding such a professional. Too many practitioners are not up to date with the latest research and therapies for autism and many of them focus exclusively on early detection (pre-school) and intervention.

Online IQ tests are tenuous at best and too much like parlor games. Get a psychologist to give him a real test after spending enough time to become familiar with any limitations he may have. I believe that a diagnosis of AS specifically includes average to above average IQ by DSM definition... but without looking I cannot say for sure. This IS usually considered to be true however. His true IQ might be higher but as you said colored by lack of understanding of the questions due to AS.



My NT granddad was a kicker. He kicked in his sleep so badly that for their 60 years of marriage, he and my grandmother had to sleep in seprate beds and bedrooms.

I wouldn't take the online IQ tests, I would just have someone who is qualified to help him with that (I have no idea where that would be though, me only being 15)

Thanks. As it turned out my husband has got a good psychologist who did a whole range of IQ testing on him. He was within normal range (as I expected). I guess my point in this post was to highlight the fact that although my husband can appear NT on one level, underneath it all he is really struggling to understand things and has been for over 40 years before I finally brought it to his attention and sought diagnosis.

I only wish he had had the benefit of diagnosis in his younger years. He won't even tell his parents about the diagnosis.

I know this story. I was 52 when I got my diagnosis. I suspected before that. I wish I had known decades ago. The plan now is to make the best of the rest of my life. If your husband takes the right steps he can hopefully reduce the frustration levels. I know it's helping me.