Most autistic people are high functioning

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Snowy Owl
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04 Mar 2016, 8:37 am

I'm pretty sure it was already generally established that there's more people with high functioning ASD (read IQ > 70) than low functioning ASD. Despite that, there's a strong link between intellectual disability and autism.

A handful of small scale studies don't necessarily prove much.

Expanding of the diagnostic criteria in recent times has led to higher diagnosis rate on the milder end of the spectrum rather than exclusively the severe cases.

Just some remarks...



btbnnyr
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04 Mar 2016, 1:04 pm

If someone scores IQ>70 on a standard IQ test, they are considered to have high functioning autism, no matter how weird they appear.

The ones who are really low functioning and mentally ret*d wouldnt' score so high on an IQ test, since IQ tests require quite a lot of communication ability.


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germanium
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04 Mar 2016, 2:59 pm

Some "low functioning autistics" have actually been found to have fairly high IQ's, some in the gifted range. They have severe sensory issues, verbal & motor dispraxi. Carly is a perfect example. She is gifted but very disabled with verbal & motor dispraxi.



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04 Mar 2016, 3:01 pm

Think about Stephen Hawking. I would say he has a fairly high IQ.



btbnnyr
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04 Mar 2016, 3:03 pm

It is very unclear to me whether the high IQs of some LFA are genuine.
Some use facilitated communication or other dubious methods like rapid prompting.


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germanium
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04 Mar 2016, 3:06 pm

btbnnyr wrote:
If someone scores IQ>70 on a standard IQ test, they are considered to have high functioning autism, no matter how weird they appear.

The ones who are really low functioning and mentally ret*d wouldnt' score so high on an IQ test, since IQ tests require quite a lot of communication ability.


Some "low IQ" autistics may actuall have normal to high IQ's but need accommodation to test properly as obviously motor dispraxi would hinder thier ability to complete the tests in a timely fashion without accommodation.



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04 Mar 2016, 3:42 pm

The tests were standardised using NT samples. This means that they measure NT IQ using a ruler that is designed to measure NT IQ - and the ruler is not a definitely accurate measure even for the standardised group (as anyone specialising in measuring individual differences knows). The level of error increases to an unknown degree when these rulers are used to measure any other group, and things like savant skills or artistic genius (for example) can't be measured by them at all.
If you look at the whole history of IQ testing it is a complex sociological and politicised history.



btbnnyr
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04 Mar 2016, 3:46 pm

germanium wrote:
btbnnyr wrote:
If someone scores IQ>70 on a standard IQ test, they are considered to have high functioning autism, no matter how weird they appear.

The ones who are really low functioning and mentally ret*d wouldnt' score so high on an IQ test, since IQ tests require quite a lot of communication ability.


Some "low IQ" autistics may actuall have normal to high IQ's but need accommodation to test properly as obviously motor dispraxi would hinder thier ability to complete the tests in a timely fashion without accommodation.


If the accommodation is facilitated communication or rapid prompting, then I cannot believe the result.

Another thing is that the argument is often made that IQ test don't work for autistic people especially LFA.
But if IQ tests don't work, then a high IQ result is as meaningless as a low IQ result.


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04 Mar 2016, 3:49 pm

germanium wrote:
Some "low functioning autistics" have actually been found to have fairly high IQ's, some in the gifted range. They have severe sensory issues, verbal & motor dispraxi. Carly is a perfect example. She is gifted but very disabled with verbal & motor dispraxi.


I am not mad but why was my post which made a similar point get completely ignored?

Just saying...

Anyway I completely agree, people just label autistic people as high or low functioning based on their own expectation. In the medical field, there is actually no such thing high functioning autism as a diagnosis.



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04 Mar 2016, 3:59 pm

auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.


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04 Mar 2016, 3:59 pm

So it's more of a social label versus a medical specification of degree of Autism? :?:



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04 Mar 2016, 4:05 pm

Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.

give yourself more time.



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Pieplup
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04 Mar 2016, 4:22 pm

auntblabby wrote:
Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.

give yourself more time.

No, Literally I'm PDD-NOS so I'm neither High nor Low Functioning more Medium Functioning. :)


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04 Mar 2016, 4:40 pm

Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.

give yourself more time.

No, Literally I'm PDD-NOS so I'm neither High nor Low Functioning more Medium Functioning. :)

then you're peerless :wtg:



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04 Mar 2016, 6:26 pm

B19 wrote:
The problem with the "my child is the worst real kind parents" is their determination to apply a dichotomy to what is actually a spectrum. They do this deliberately, it seems, to elevate their statements, get attention, and try to legitimise their spurious claim to be privileged authorities on who the 'real' autistic people are (their children). There's something really wrong with this.

Someone with a missing limb has a significant impairment, but you don't get parents of quadriplegiac or paraplegiac offspring, for example, claiming that their disabled children/adult children with multiple paralysed limbs that cause greater impairment are the only genuinely limb impairment. So what is going on re autism?

I think some of it is that the divisor parents are egged on to some extent by Autism Speaks and other groups of the same ilk, who make up the "autism is a tragedy" gang, and that is their ideological position, so they resent capable people on the spectrum who give the lie to their demonising propaganda.

There are other issues with the whole dichotomy of high/low functioning, as we know. Most people (including NTs, including those very parents) are high functioning in some areas of life and not in others. I am low functioning in sports (you better believe it, my sports ability IQ would be zero) and high functioning in others.

As the decades have gone by in my life my distaste for dichotomous thinking has greatly increased. As we are all humans, the whole human race on a spectrum from 'extreme autistic" to "not at all". Dividing people into "low and high" is allied to a lot of the dehumanisation stuff, and drives a lot of the more extreme claims about the worthlessness and cost of autism generally, the 'tragedy' of being a parent of a child on the spectrum.

I am a parent of a child and grandchildren on the spectrum and on the spectrum and would rather cut off my tongue than bleat about their challenges on the internet from the perspective of a martyr-parent/grandparent. They have been the dominant source of joy in my life. The dehumanisers are much louder of voice though than they are great in number, and whether more practical support for their genuine challenges would make a difference, I wonder. If that is what is driving their chorus then it is more understandable, though their dialogue is not typically framed like that. They come across more as child-haters than parents asking for more help to parent well.

The vicious stridency of those who appear to be child-hater-parents does seem to me to somehow echo the strident hatred of the voices of the vindictive ex-spouses who wildly claim all autists are psychopaths, both groups make wild and hateful generalisations because autistic people exist.


I'm so glad you explained this! I really appreciate that you love and care for your children and grandchildren rather than throw pity parties online. Autistic people need love too. They're also humans, and demonizing them will only make things worse.