Aspies with average IQ

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I’m smart, but not a genius, according to my IQ. Apparently Aspies are supposed to have an IQ of 130 or higher and know crazy amounts of math and science. I’m just “normal smart,” slightly above average—dumb for an Aspie. Are any other Aspies not geniuses?

I did not get the diagnosis 'Asperger syndrome' under the DSM-IV, but I also had no language delay. Go figure. (Psychiatrists are strange.)

While my IQ has been diagnosed as being above 130 on multiple occasions, I would consider myself of average intelligence. I am not particularly skilled at applying the knowledge I possess toward practical goals; I would say I'm not that good at learning, either. The figure of 130-something I got out of the IQ tests is baffling to me and holds very little meaning. I have limited interests and quite a disappointing general knowledge. I'm a factory worker and I'm rather satisfied with that.

What I'm saying is there are many different interpretations of the concept of 'intelligence', and if you do not conform to the stereotype of the 'Aspie savant/genius/prodigy', there's nothing to worry about. They make up only part of the spectrum.

Autism doesn't equil genius. If it did there wouldn't be scores of special education schools for autistics who can't handle mainstream curriculum.

I am not very smart either.

In the 90s, when I was 12, my mother brought me to a psychiatric clinic to take a performance test and an IQ test because she suspected I had a learning disability. I remember I scored in high school to college level in all areas, except for math, for which I was the same as my peers. My IQ was in the 120s on that test. They decided based on this to give me Ritalin.... well, it was the 90s after all.

I was a jerk as a child, and continue to be a jerk till today, so I refused to take medication, or base my major life decisions on my state as a 12 year old, as society would have me do. I have done things my own way ever since. Despite the fact that an IQ test is supposed to measure innate intelligence, and is not supposed to change much over time, I now have an IQ of 142. Despite the fact that I was supposed to be bad at math I'm a scientist by profession now, and I do statistical modeling on a daily basis. Despite the fact that I was supposed to need Ritalin to focus, I only got one question wrong on the GRE, got my PhD, and work every day as a scientist since just fine without ever needing to take it.

I don't mean to suggest that everyone will have the same experience as I did. All I am saying is that professionals are mortal too, and are subject to error. Don't let other people's idea of your potential limit your trajectory too much. Get to know yourself well. Don't be afraid of trying out things you want to do in life. To me, this is more important as a life determinant than IQ.

That's a bunch of hogwash to say that you must be a "genius" to be an Aspie.

The only "requirement" as far as IQ is concerned is that an Aspie must have an IQ of 70 or above.

I am a person who used to test out "superior," but now tests out "bright normal."

I'm no genius. I'm smart in some ways, dumb in others. Very dumb in still others.

That your IQ must be 130+ to be diagnosed with AS is based on mere cultural stereotype. Nothing in either the ICD-10 or DSM-IV says that. The distinction between classical autism and Asperger Syndrome is that the former involves intellectual disability, but not the latter. 'Intellectual disability' is defined as having an IQ of 69 or less. This means that you can have an IQ that is 30 points below average and still meet the diagnostic criteria for AS.

I actually talked with a psychologist the other day about me possibly having autism, and I asked her about Asperger's (even though it's not technically a diagnosis anymore in the US). She told me that having a genius IQ was a common stereotype about Asperger's and that was part of why they removed it and now just diagnose people with "autism spectrum disorder". She said that the only real difference between Asperger's and autism was that there was an absence of a speech delay in Asperger's. I didn't have a speech delay, so I likely could have been diagnosed with Asperger's if I had sought a diagnosis a few years ago. But my IQ is around 93, which puts me in the average range.

The last 3 replies are spot on.

I think removing Aspergers as a diagnosis only made the genius/savant issue worse. People can define a colloquial term however they want. When Aspergers was a diagnosis the Aspie genius meme was a stereotype not based on fact. As colloquial term the genius definition is a fact that is damaging for people.

IQ tests can be misleading. And personally I am terrible at math I am in the 5th percent meaning 95 out of 100 people are better then me. I can do multiplication and division fine but algebra and beyond I struggle VERY badly with.

My IQ is 2 or 3 points below genius level. But despite the math I was taking 5th grade science in 1st grade so I was not board and I always excelled at English. Like reading a book and telling you what it meant and creative writing of my own. In English and vocabulary I was about 95th percent if I remember right.

Just find out what you are good at. Everyone nurotypical or not has a weakness and strength.

My daughter who has an Asperger's diagnosis, has a slow processing speed and poor working memory, so due to that they couldn't work out her IQ. So personally I think the genius thing isn't a fact. It makes it even harder for the ones with this kind of problem, when we're not good at socializing, not good at sports or dance, bad coordination and average at maths and science, oh and throw in being dyslexic

I've had some interesting experiences with IQ tests. I had one when I was 6 years old as the school thought there was a learning disability/developmental issue. They did the IQ test on the week before Christmas break. I was pulled out of class on movie day for the test, so I was not happy. As a result I refused to engage with the person beyond some basic answers as I wanted to get back to class and watch the movie - (Mary Poppins, one of my favourites). So, since I only did the bare minimum, they figure my IQ was about 70 - 80 and stuck me in the special education classes. After about a month they decided that, while there was clearly something different about me, I compensated well enough that I wasn't really benefiting from being with the special education kids. So, I was stuck back in the mainstream lessons. They wanted to re-test my IQ again at the time but my mum refused as she was worried I would feel bad about myself if I wasn't able to do better the second time.

I had another IQ test while I was at university, which helped diagnose my learning differences, but my scores were all over the place - very deficient in some areas, but well above my age range in others. So, the new guesstimate is about 120-ish averaging it all out, but ultimately, impossible to measure accurately.

As others have pointed out, IQ really doesn't matter; most of us are probably not savants or geniuses. As a section of the population as a whole, I suspect our actual IQ's would mirror the standard bell curve with the majority of us being of average intelligence.

I consider myself to be an aspie of average intelligence. I have been tested by mental health specialists when I was a child, around the time when I got my PDD-NOS diagnosis, but I was never told my results. As an adult I´ve taken many online IQ tests out of curiosity, and my results varied widely each time: my lowest score was 93 and my highest was 127. Most times, though, I scored around 100.

This year I´ve also found a website that offers free cognitive assessments, and I tried it out. My verbal reasoning turned out to be higher than average, while my visual reasoning was considerably low. I also scored very high in memory, but my executive functions, including my working memory, were low-average. I also scored low in perception, coordination and attention.

Overall, I don´t think most aspies are geniuses or savants. I think we´re just more likely to excel in certain areas and be way below average in others, and our scores in those tests depend highly on what they are evaluating.