Autism and genius

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I recently read an article that stated a theory that autism is somewhat connected to being a genius. Talk about a boost in self-worth. Any thoughts?

It is our special interestes and the depth in which we go that makes us become or have a look of what would be called genius. We are unique. So one said genius is 2% thought and 98% work.

Some people with AS are gifted with a special interest that they would be considered a genius in. Some can even turn it into a great job, some even a nobel prize.

But that does not mean everyone with AS has a special interest that leads to genius, or even a special interest.

the above points are both good points.

there is also a link to savantism, that said it is still fairly rare among people on the spectrum, just less so than in the general population, at least to my understanding.

i dont know if one can call oneself a genius purely by work, they say that it takes 10k hours to become an expert, for me a genius is one that attains similar expertize in substantially less time than that.
that is a rather subjective viewpoint though, feel free to critique.

And there are also lazy Aspies with no special interests, who have a "genius" level IQ. So I guess there are two types of genius?

That is the real truth. So it isn't subjective.

I'm autistic and am not in any way, shape or form a genius. My intellect is perfectly average. So when people start talking about how autistic people are suppose to be oh so smart, I just feel my self esteem shrinking, like I'm failing or something by not being a genius.

or perhaps you havent found the one place where that genius shines.

i suck at many things, most things in the world, but my grasp on computers is what allows me to feel capable at at least something.

I often joke to myself that I inherited all of the bad aspects of autism and none of the good bits such as being a genius or gifted. I don't mean that though, the bad aspects aren't really bad just challenging. But it would be nice to feel that there was some "pay off" for being so weird, like being highly intelligent. I know I'm of above average intelligence, but I'm in that difficult bracket intelligence wise where I'm smart enough to know what being really clever is, and knowing I fall somewhat short of it. On the other hand, putting intelligence and ego aside, I feel I have become a more humble and even perhaps a nicer person because of that.

The real problem in this area is that all intelligence tests are not designed to work with Asperger's people. Part of the work-up to find if one is Asperger's is to go through a battery of "IQ" tests. A "normal person" will have a nice level result with all the results about the same - most approximately 100. My son on the other hand - as he went through the tests - got wildly different results. On a test for problem solving - the testers said that had blown beyond the upper end of the test - and that they placed his score here at the maximum for the test - 190 when taken by a 14year old. Yet in other tests especially in areas testing social interrogation and interaction - he struggled mightily to even complete them. It was the wild variation in scores that confirmed his diagnosis of Asperger's.

So its not so much that we are bunches smarter than NTs as its that we different from them in so many mental ways. Our brains work differently from theirs.

Just though of a possibility --- This could be the beginning point of building a definitive test for Asperger's and HFA in that such tests show strongly different results for NT and those on the "spectrum". It is not the positive result for high intelligence but rather the variations of the response compared to NT responses that would flag one as being on the spectrum. It seems to be that it should be quite possible to administer such a test over the Internet in somewhere between 1 to 2 hours and make it nearly unfoolable. Such a test would definitely be more reliable than the present self-assessment that is we now use. It seems that we already do have a definitive tests to point out those on the spectrum - The problem is that the methodology is over clumsy.

Therefor, we now have a simple problem before us- How to remove the clumsiness from the present definitive tests and make them self-takeable via the Internet.

Intelligence tests cannot be reliably administered via the internet. Not all aspects can be properly measured that way. It is the case that some aspies, although we don't know in what amount, are smarter than many NTs. There may be the disparity of verbal over performance IQ which is often seen in Aspergers, which leaves some aspies without much advantage, but likely a smaller amount of aspies with very high IQs, likely don't really lack performance IQ.

This will probably get me a warning from the moderators... but, if this site represents what is referred to as a statistically accurate sampling of the AS spectrum... then this theory has been busted already...

I have met a LARGE NUMBER of AS individuals in the last three years... Aside from our miswiring, we are average in terms of intelligence... that is to say, the average IQ in this country is 98... (on a scale that makes 100 average)... this means that, by the law of averages there a LOT that are way above that line... and there are a lot more that are a great deal lower...

How even IQ test results are varies by what subtype of autism you have - passive type autism tends to come with more even IQs than the other types.

I'm a textbook passive case and for the parts of my IQ they tested I tested relatively even - nothing like how a lot of people here test. The passive subtype would be missed by this type of testing, and while its the least common subtype, we do exist.

Of course my IQ vs my social skills were drastically different - they noted at least 2 standard deviations of difference there (on informal but more informative tests I have found it might be 3 or 4 standard deviations for sub-parts, but generally 2-4 standard deviations difference is what I'm looking at between IQ and all of my emotional/social stuff). But the IQ variation that are common for people on the spectrum are very dependent on the subtype of autism.

It works well for finding a certain group of people with autism to look into more. It drastically misses others of us. it would also not find people on its own, because autism isn't the only type of thing that leads to even IQ scores. It could be a screening tool, but it would not catch everyone at all. It would absolutely have missed me.

I have seen no evidence that auties have greater creativity or intellect than NTs. I would say in both groups the mediocre constitute the greatest number.

Each group probably has a guasian normal distribution of intelligence and creativity insofar as creativity can be measured.l

ruveyn

I think IQ has nothing to do with genius - I stand by that complete and total dedication or complete and total obsorption in a thing brings an outcome of total and complete understanding and brings to fruiton the thing that one is involved in - I judge genius by its fruit - so that's maybe why I see it that way - if one says a person is a genius because they have an high IQ but produce no fruit then what good is being a genius but to hold a large number - my thoughts

How does that bolster your self worth? Are you going to take credit for someone else qualities or accomplishments? If you worked on accomplishing something yourself than you would not need to try and take credit for what other people do.