Why is "high intellect" associated with Asperger's?

[chincey_james]

Growing up, I was told that I was gifted and highly intelligent, but that was and is confusing because of these facts:

- I never learned how to hold pencils correctly. I hold them in a way that hurts, but it was a habit I could not break even after they tried 1:1 sessions to 'fix' it.

- I was in remedial math even in college, not remembering how to do some of the most basic math steps.

- Even by the time I got to college, I had trouble remembering which numbers matched specific months when dates were written as numerals.

- I could never figure out how to open lockers in high school and found it to be too stressful. I ended up carrying all of my books around 24/7 and hurting my back and arms.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I Never noticed I held my pencil different until college. I cared my textbooks in college as I was too cheap to rent a locker. Even got stopped once on the street they could not believe my briefcase was full of books. really annoying at bus stop the detectives had guns drawn. Though I was in TV show Starsky & hutch. two guys run car onto side walk
leave car run up with guns drawn. they were surprised to see a bunch of text books.

 

[Judge]

I just find great irony in such a question. One in which the answer itself lies in the question.

"High intellect" associated with autism reflects the limits of Dr. Hans Asperger's research. When he sometimes documented his test subjects as "little professors".

Of course with much further research done under less "restrictive circumstances" allows us presently to conclude that only some of us meet such a description, rather than all of us. Though it is odd that while medical science advances past this earlier observation, pop culture continues to muddle the minds of the masses to give so many the wrong impression.

"Restrictive Circumstances" = Existing and working in Hitler's Third Reich

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I'm brighter than average, my older brother was a genius, big difference. The time we put into special interests what sets us apart, Along with other abilities such as my visualization skills one eye guy in land of the blind. Don't mistake this for gifted in the conventional sense.

 

[darangal]

I work with dozens of engineers at work and the more intellectual someone is the less likely they seem to be to engage with others socially. I had a genius classmate (IQ 140) and he was a prick, a giant bully, and a narcissist. Intellectuals don't need to be emotionally developed to be functionally smart or brilliant and spending time on both can be draining especially when one's aptitude is stronger in one area.

I remember reading somewhere that to connect or have a relationship with another person they should be with 15 IQ points of you and in my experience this relatively speaking holds true.

The point I'm trying to drive at is a lot of smart people, those who are technically gifted, savants, and the like tend to not be as blessed in the realm of social interaction. The intelligent tend to lack approachability and/or a charming personality. That's not abnormal for anyone but it's more obvious when somebody gets a lot of attention for being good at something like splitting atoms or building robots.

Smart people tend to get the limelight shone on their failings, or their averageness in this case their lack of a vibrant social life or a social acumen comparable to their intellectual abilities. Autism is often associated with poor social skills and a specialized skill, thanks to "Rain Man" and so the Autistic and the brilliant get lumped together.

I think it's kinda cool. Doesn't mean I like telling people I'm on the spectrum but it does make me feel better about it.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

Figured I'd chime in on both sides of this conversation, both answering the original question and sharing personal experience on the whole "Aspies are savants" thing.


From what I understand if it based on my own personal research into ASD, which I was doing to better understand myself, it most likely comes down to the demographics involved in the studies back in the day, both Asperger's and whoever the fellow was behind Autism I don't recall his name rn. Perhaps through pure circumstance and also most likely due to how the different research selected their subjects, the Autism research guy wound up with mostly higher needs/lower functioning Autistic kids wheras Asperger wound up with mostly high functioning Autistic kids, thusly according to the pools they were starting with their childhood subjects were noticable different from each other with Asperger's children seemingly being smarter than the subjects the Autism research had hence why he coined the term Asperger's Syndrome to describe what his subjects had as opposed to the research subjects the Autism guy had.
Also ofc there's the stuff already mentioned by others who replied which are also good points.
Apologies if that wasn't the most descriptive explanation or if I missed some important info, oh and for also not knowing the name of the original researcher on Autism. I'm admittedly not the best at relaying information I've picked up which was probably why I struggled so much with writing essays but and I'm also not the best with punctuation or sentence structure either so please bear with me on that in this post.


As for my own personal experience around the whole "Aspie Savant" thing, well long story short it didn't do me any favors and in fact negatively impacted my education.
As for the long story? Well...
My adoptive father really latched onto the idea of me being some sort of savant and as a result he had very high expectations of me when it came to schooling, which umm wasn't fair and really didn't work out too well for me. To be exact he wanted me to get straight As and initially wanted me to be an honors student despite me not wanting to be one, because I knew my limits and knew that was going to be too challenging for me and unsurprisingly it was and I ended up dropping out of honors much to my father's dismay. It certainly didn't help that while I was in elementary school, he did ensure that I had access to extra help though but once it was time to transition to middle school he deemed me "all caught up" and claimed I didn't need any extra help anymore. Not only that but he also started saying that I couldn't get extra help and that from then on he expected me to just figure things out on my own. I did have study hall every year but I didn't use it like I should've, mainly because my father had discouraged me asking for help so I didn't ask for it at all during school and ofc he never gave me help himself telling me that "At this point in schooling you're expected to figure things out on your own, so no I can't and won't help you." In hindsight I probably could've asked for help but since my father discouraged it so much I didn't bother asking because I didn't want to be a burden on my teachers for asking for so much help. Despite the fact that I was noticably struggling in school and was diagnosed with Asperger's my father sadly never put the two together instead insisting that I was "just being lazy" and that I "just needed to study harder and use that smart Asperger's brain of mine", which I hated that rhetoric and never understood it. He persisted with that belief though all during middle/high school often telling me to "stop being lazy and just use that smart Asperger's brain of yours!", but it's not like my brain came with a manual on how to use it yet the way he made it out was like I should just have this inherent smartness that I could use to easily solve any problem thrown my way or something I dunno. It was frustrating because I started out just trying to do my best but my best was never good enough because it wasn't giving me the grades my father expected me to have and so I gradually lost interest in school because of the absurd expectations my father had of me, however I still somehow managed to graduate but definitely not with the best gpa at the end of it. Also sadly my father's words got to me deeply and made me feel like I was just a lazy kid, when looking back I just never was given the help I needed because my father was convinced I didn't need any help and just needed to use "that smart Asperger's brain" and to "stop being so lazy!". Which the laziness thing was mainly in answer to me focusing on my special interests in order to help keep myself going amongst it all.

 

[Misty Avich]

I think I have a gift of being able to remember so much of my childhood and earlier adulthood in such detail. But if I could swap that for being NT, I would. Lol

 

[Neri]

There is a term known as "twice exceptional" that covers this phenomenon now. Basically, its for all kids (who do grow up to be adults) who are "gifted" in some way, but they struggle in other ways. It's quite common for high IQ people to have ASD or ADHD, or both, so I think that's why the misconception that "high intellect is associated with Aspergers". Hans Aspergers expressed it well, in that he talked about how the social difficulties went hand in hand with the "giftedness", they could not be separated. It's covered in the Neurotribes book.

The thing is, the complex thinking "gifted" brain is not so common, not as common as Autism itself, so that is why the discrepancy.

I have noticed, in my life, at least, that "gifted" "high IQ" is itself an anomalous brain thing, you only have to look at IQ bell curves to see that, and that those of us with these strange brains often struggle with many mental health conditions. To be "hyper aware" and yet unable to relate to the majority of people is quite excruciating in itself.

My youngest son is a good example of this. He has hardly been able to relate to his own siblings and other parent, he is extremely socially shy, he used to barricade himself in his room for his birthdays and christmas, and yet he is a brilliant adolescent.Thank God for the internet. It probably saved his life, as he had suicidal ideation from the age of 7 until recently.

He just turned 18. He is pursuing an Autism diagnosis (he moved out into youth housing, but I still talk to him most days). He makes me feel quite dim, as his brain is incredible. His knowledge and skills are across the board, advanced maths, multiple sciences, politics, geography, history, music (he is writing his first song at the moment, plays guitar, sings, composes electronic music) amazing digital and IT skills, philosophy, world building (he has constructed a magnificent world he plans on turning into online comic style stories to give away) D&D, chess player extraordinaire; really a mind blowing 18 year old. But he also struggles with insomnia, "mild" psychosis, extreme anxiety, impaired executive function and the list goes on. Oh he's also has synesthesia, he can taste sounds, but his sense of smell is very poor.

 

[The Pandector]

The same, only different, @FoxLovinPat . Did poorly in school but did great on IQ tests. By junior high this was sorted out to be a disciplinary problem and appropriate punishment administered. Really angered my French teacher that I was a star competitor in speech and debate while struggling with her class; debate coach blew when she tried to have me removed from the team and I was confused by angry teachers and parents. Screw ‘em; debate was fun, while the only interesting thing in French class was Miss Allen herself.

Couldn’t believe all the moaning and groaning at the army induction station; honestly thought they were all bored to death with pages upon pages of simplistic word and logic games, and what a two dimensional shape would look like if you inserted tab A in slot B. Somehow, I was finished long before the rest. IRL, the ‘social scene’ in the army was beyond my comprehension, but I was once again pegged as an uncooperative bright boy. It didn’t help that my few years in public address had taught me a sharp and focused tongue that belied my mostly silent personality and angered my superiors. Seriously… shouldn’t someone with bars on their shoulders be able to handle honest questions?

In my younger years, it always seemed the authorities held me accountable for being a genius, while every real person in my life thought I was stupid.

My parents were the exceptional authorities; they thought I was stupid. Having been given a key position in a top security high tech area in my 30’s, I tried to share my success with my visiting parents.
“Don’t try to tell me you ARE somebody,” my mother admonished. Heaven forbid.

Intelligence is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Neri]

This is an article I found about "twice exceptional."

What Does Twice Exceptional Mean? Identifying and Nurturing Gifted Children with ADHD

The intellectual potential of twice exceptional youth is great but sometimes difficult to recognize and cultivate due to a co-existing condition like ADHD, a learning disability, sensory issues, or other conditions that complicate learning — and teaching.

www.additudemag.com

 

[The Pandector]

This is an article I found about "twice exceptional."

What Does Twice Exceptional Mean? Identifying and Nurturing Gifted Children with ADHD

The intellectual potential of twice exceptional youth is great but sometimes difficult to recognize and cultivate due to a co-existing condition like ADHD, a learning disability, sensory issues, or other conditions that complicate learning — and teaching.

www.additudemag.com

Thanks for posting that link. Kinda scary; it’s about children, but it’s like I was reading about myself. Guess I never matured. So often I wonder what it would have been like to have a diagnosis and go through life understanding my condition.

 

[Neri]

Thanks for posting that link. Kinda scary; it’s about children, but it’s like I was reading about myself. Guess I never matured. So often I wonder what it would have been like to have a diagnosis and go through life understanding my condition.

I know right? I read it to my partner and it hit home for both of us and I read it to my youngest 18 year old son too.

I wonder the same thing. I probably wouldn't have had all my children, I know that. They are a direct product of my autism, and childhood neglect. So something good came out of my monotropic brain and catastrophic failure to achieve in school or socially or to maintain any semblance of mental wellness

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I often feel like I was gifted as a child but the school district kept overlooking it because I had difficulty with math. There were several signs that my intelligence was higher than most kids as I learned things pretty quickly and got bored in class if I already knew what was being taught to me, I could understand a second language as a child and while I couldn’t and still can’t speak it fluently, it was more than most eight year olds ever had, I managed to figure out how to set VCR and microwaves up with ease by the time I was eight and already knew how to record shows on the VCR at a specific time when I was seven, could plays songs by ear on the piano after hearing them a few times and be pretty accurate with hitting the correct notes, and I knew a lot about music in the form of songs. I even knew exactly who the Beatles were by the third grade and very familiar with their music through my sister.