Autism and Intellectual Impairment

[Vesta]

It's all been likely said but I'd like to state that ASD doesn't cause impairments of intelligence. We just work on a different level from NT thinking. There will be areas where we are weaker. But it's the similar with NTs. It's just our weaknesses are a bit more pronounced, due to how we funtion and respond.

You know. This is like saying a person with Down Syndrome is a 'mentally deficient' person, because thier face/head look different from normal.

You know that saying about assumptions...

No one denies that, but about 70% of people with autism have a reduced intelligence.

 

[Xinyta]

@Vesta I'll concede that there can be people with ASD that also may not be as intelligent. 70% though?! Hmmm. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising. People are as variable, as ASD itself.

 

[vergil96]

It depends. There is ASD-Aspergers with nornal to high intelligence and there is ASD-autism with intellectual disability. The latter is the sad reality of many autistic people. Maybe it's intelligence itself impacted, maybe these people are so severely ill from overstimulation that they can't develop intellectually in a normal fashion or can't overcome their disabilities (autism causes many at the same time). Disabilities can cause developmental delay, because they're prohibitive, restrictive and all-consuming. It is what it is.

 

[VictorR]

No one denies that, but about 70% of people with autism have a reduced intelligence.

Given significant changes in autism diagnosis, especially over the past two decades, it's often a good idea to consider the source and time for any stats, especially on prevalance rates and co-occurance rates.

On co-occuring ID and ASD, a 2019 paper reported that the percentage is far lower than the 70% figure often cited in earlier papers.

Kanner’s first description of children with autistic disorder included delay in intellectual development as an associated feature in several of the cases described (11). Moving forward to formal recognition of autism as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III), criterion C specified gross deficits in language, and criterion D stipulated peculiar patterns of speech, if present (12). Thus, early descriptions of ASD assumed that a significant proportion of children would be minimally verbal, which overlaps considerably with ID (13). In fact, earlier epidemiological reports indicated that as many as 70% of individuals with ASD had co-occurring ID (14, 15). It was only recently that epidemiological reports reversed this trend, with some suggesting that ID was present in as few as 30% of children with ASD (6, 16). However, methdology may artificially deflate these rates (17). Recent studies have found that both minimally verbal and ID subsets of the ASD population are disporpotionately and increasingly underincluded in ASD treatment studies (18), neuroimaging studies (19), and ASD research in general (20).

Source:
State of the Field: Differentiating Intellectual Disability From Autism Spectrum Disorder - PMC

 

[Outdated]

It also pays to remember that by definition 49% of the world's population is of less than average intelligence.

It takes all kinds to make up a world and we all have different strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Vesta]

It also pays to remember that by definition 49% of the world's population is of less than average intelligence.

It takes all kinds to make up a world and we all have different strengths and weaknesses.

We are talking about factory workers, service staff, and other low-paid occupations where replacing personnel is not difficult. And of course, you yourself would not agree to take such a job

 

[tree]

We are talking about factory workers, service staff, and other low-paid occupations where replacing personnel is not difficult. And of course, you yourself would not agree to take such a job

I don't think it's fair to generalize "low-paid occupations"
with lack of intelligence. More than one factor may be
the reason a person seeks or holds a *low status/pay* job.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and IQ – A Complex Interplay - PMC

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

@Vesta I'll concede that there can be people with ASD that also may not be as intelligent. 70% though?! Hmmm. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising. People are as variable, as ASD itself.

A lot of us AS1, have significantly over 100 iQ's lots of STEM, grads are AS1.

 

[Judge]

I don't think it's fair to generalize "low-paid occupations"
with lack of intelligence. More than one factor may be
the reason a person seeks or holds a *low status/pay* job.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and IQ – A Complex Interplay - PMC

Yep. A scenario that would have perfectly described my NT brother. He had no intention of working hard 5 days a week as a matter of choice. Growing up academically bright, yet somewhat lazy and rebellious.

Also kind of a way of expressing contempt for our father, a "Type A Personality" who worked himself to death, unable to even adjust to a forced retirement after two heart attacks.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My younger brother on the spectrum lost his job due to plant closing. found new lower paying position, it was more challenging, involved designing equipement from ground up, kowever he more than made up the renumeration on his special interest stock market, did not like coworker offered to pay his severance it he was let go. So things are not always as they seem.