Do ALL people with AS have above average intelligence?

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Mensa's website says you have to be within the top two percentiles. This can mean a score of between 132 and 148 depending on which test is used.

Which is wrong again. See: lack of inflection and other "odd" voice characteristics in adults with Asperger's; these are speech difficulties which are easily discernable from "normal" people.

No they do not. They have average to above average intelligence.


I wasn't good at math either but was good in English everyone says. I was a good speller since 4th grade and my punctuations and all were above the grade level but my reading level was at the grade level even though I was reading encyclopedias at age 11 when I was reading about my obsessions. They weren't kid encyclopedias though.
I just never wanted to read higher grade level books lol because I didn't want to grow up. I didn't try reading adult books till I was a teen and that was Into Thin Air. Heck even my cousin was reading those paper backs books at age ten and she is NT.


I was able to do all my school work till fifth grade and then it all started to get hard. Sure I had some help with my school work just like all kids do and I even had help with my reports just like all kids get help with it. When a child has a report on something, the parents help the child do research and they help them organize their report but they they do all the writing and typing.
Work was more concrete when I was little and then about 5th grade, it starts to get abstract and the rules change about assignments like you can no longer copy words from books when you do a report because it's plagiarism but it's okay for little kids to do it It's hard for me to use my own words, things I say are from text books or what I have heard or read. They're never my own words. It's impossible to make something your own words if it's already been said.

Lack of inflection? I have that at times, and it is NOT a speech difficulty!! !

And "odd voice" tells you NOTHING! how do you get speech difficulty from THAT!?!?!?

A speech difficulty would be:

Lisp(USUALLY a problem with the teeth or tongue)

paralysis(Of the oral/throat area)(USUALLY a nervous reaction, or pathology)

inability to create distinct sounds discernable as the necessary sounds.

The inability to properly process the info needed to communicate properly via speech.(THIS is the one that is most common in LFA people)

A wierd accent, pronunciation(that is discernable), or even the odd word choice, etc... just doesn't cut it!

That is so bull, when you read about AS it says they have average to above average intelligence. Whoever told you you have to have above average to be AS is so wrong. There are even NTs that have above average intelligence and does that mean they should be AS? No. having average intelligence or above is a human thing, not AS. You do need to have a average intelligence or above to be diagnosed with AS.

2ukenkerl,

That's what they define as speech difficulties; if you watch a person with Asperger's talk who stutters, stammers and cannot communicate their point across adequately due to AS, one cannot say that they don't have difficulties with verbal communication.

Those at Attwood's told me this too....

I think I could of been intelligent if taught in a way which I could comprehend. I remember images. Places, faces and so on I forget names and dates. I'm not NT so try to teach me something in the same way you'd teach a NT person and I won't take it in correctly. Also I think my brains always on overtime trying to comprehend every single thing that's going on around me so trying to teach me something on top of that really wears my brain out.

The only time I can relax my mind is when I'm in my bed room alone. Has soon as there any kind of activity going on around me my brain goes back to work.

Maybe this is why so many Aspies like to be alone. Our brains needs a darn brake.

Actually, it does. If an autistic individual is mentally ret*d, they are low-functioning autistic and cannot have Asperger's syndrome by definition.

NeantHumain, see this (taken from the DSM-IV-TR):

Martin Bryant was diagnosed with AS, and he had an IQ of 60.

It all comes down to semantics. What do you mean by "intelligence"? What do you mean by "average"?

Shadowbound, you said, "I think I could of been intelligent if taught in a way which I could comprehend."

That is not intelligence. It is education. My mother was uneducated, but she was VERY intelligent (based on my observation of her problem-solving skills; her level of self-education once she left school; her ability to understand complex abstract topics etc).

When we talk about measuring intelligence, we get even further away from a real understanding of it.

My boys both "failed" their first IQ tests. My older son - he was tested at age 6. He was so anxious he couldn't sit still to complete the test and found it very hard to stay on task. Still, the test was scored according to the rules and graded as if he had completed it all. I was told that due to his below average intelligence he was incapable of working on his maths (especially) at the class level. The fact that he WAS actually competent in maths was then ascribed to me being a pushy mother, which they also used to explain his extreme anxiety.
They clearly did not understand that you cannot force someone to do better than they are capable of. That psychologist put far too much emphasis on the validity of a test which was never intended (or should have never been intended) to be the final authority on the subject of a person's intelligence.
My youngest - he was first tested when he was still non-verbal. The questions were put verbally. If he had been given a written test he would have done better. After the test had been scored we were told he was "borderline". (Borderline what?)

Since that time, both boys have been re-assessed. Both scored very high, between 135 and 150. We were also told, at the time of the later assessments, that these were probably underestimates.

IQ testing is only a guide. The tests make certain assumptions about the person being tested. Once the person being tested is far enough outside the average, the test loses validity. The tests are also based on a particular 'norm', and again, if you are too different to that particular group on which the original test was developed, then again the test will be inaccurate. Have you ever done a test and found a question that was culturally confusing or irrelevant? For example, language variations between English-speaking countries can be confusing. A question that asks, "Would you go sledding in June, or in December?" would be almost incomprehensible to someone in a tropical country, and when you change hemispheres, you get the opposite answer. An idiotic, chauvinistic tester would score a wrong answer for someone for whom the question is merely inaccurate or irrelevant.

Scoring too high or too low will also give an inaccurate result.

And getting sub-scores too widely varying is a clear signpost that the test, for this person, is incapable of giving an accurate result.

Do not let your own understanding of your intelligence be guided by a number on a report.

didn't anyone learn in school to be wary of multiple-choice questions that stipulate ALL or NONE?

come on... very RARELY are either of those the answer.

It's not bull at all, Spokane Girl. And NT's with above average intelligence has NOTHING to do with it. Being AS is MORE than just a higher than average IQ. You aren't AS just because you're clever. Don't assume that's what I was saying because I wasn't. Average intelligence for someone on the Spectrum (the NT world does NOT count) - is PDD-NOS.

I am certain the DSM-V (when it's released) will bear this out.



Daniel, stuttering and so forth is not exclusive to the Spectrum. NT's have trouble with it as well. The two situations in this case are therefore SEPERATE and consequently irrelevant to the argument. Sounds to me like you took the people who told you that out of context.



This has never been confirmed by anyone - merely speculated. Speculation is not proof. I actually didn't know his IQ was 60. This means he's LFA if he's on the Spectrum (and even that hasn't been confirmed).

I'm average to above average, I think. I'm probably the dumbest person on this board.

Last edited by Ana54 on 06 Jan 2008, 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

TLPG,

Here you go (Gillberg's AS criteria):

It's specific to AS. (d) and (a) are what you're looking for, not all with AS will have them, but they're there. How can someone say that the inability to modulate one's voice to the emotional/mechanical situation isn't speech impairment?

Martin Bryant was diagnosed with AS by a psychiatrist working for the Crown; he was also assessed by another psychiatrist who said he didn't have it for the fact that he actively sought out relationships (which is wrong); I was reading the report the other day. I'd peg him as PDD-NOS personally (due to the IQ of 60 and his ability to communicate adequately).

I highly doubt the DSM-V is going to include "above-average" intelligence in its diagnostic criteria; there won't be many people with Asperger's then.

Everyone stammers at times.(Many more would without fillers) Stuttering is debatable, and done for several reasons.(I know that first hand, even though I don't stutter much.) As for not being able to communicate, etc...? I said that myself.

Still, NONE of that is lack of inflection. WHERE does the criteria say that said lack is an inability to do so!?!? I lack inflection at times, sometimes whole paragraphs go by without it! Yet it is due to a lack of concern for that, and a lack of emotion, rather than a lack of control.

ACTUALLY, I DID see in the DSM, an actual book, where it listed IQs, etc... 60 is LFA! Not HFA! NOT AS! It is LFA!