IQ PLEASE HELP!! SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIQ AND PIQ

Hi

I'm really hoping someone can help me?

So I'm going forward for an ASD Diagnosis.  I am convinced that I have Aspergers.  I'm waiting on an appointment from [removed by moderator].
I'm 43 by the way so this is a kind of 'late diagnosis' and last year I got diagnosed with ADHD as well but ADHD doesn't quite explain the other stuff that is going on for me which now I am medicated shows much more!
So I paid privately for an HCPC reg Adult Educational Psychologist to test my IQ.  It's high and I knew it was but there is a problem.  There is significant discrepancy.  So in my verbal scores my results are in the 96th percentile which puts me in the 'very superior' category but there is a discrepancy of 21 points to my non verbal results which are on the 73rd percentile.
The EP says:

A difference between VIQ and PIQ of as much as 17 standard score points(in favour of former)  is relatively uncommon and would be found in only about 10% of the population.

My discrepancy is higher than 17 it's 21.  So I googled that exact statement and all that keeps coming up is 'learning disability' specifically HFA, Aspergers and something called NLD.  ADHD also gets mentioned but much less.
So I just want to know really would that discrepancy in IQ be typical for someone with Aspergers/Autism and what do you guys make of it.
Thanks.
Savannah
Edited by Nellie-Mod
  • Hi, when I was 11 my VIQ was 120 and my PIQ was 76. No further testing was done. I have found out this is common in ASD - specifically what used to be called Asperger’s - now ASD with no language or intellectual impairment. 

    I have been diagnosed with ASD (Aspergers) and ADHD. This congnitve profile may point towards some right hemisphere dysfunction, as the right hemisphere is responsible for what is assessed in the PIQ. Quite likely you are right handed. 

    I have also noticed that I have slight weakness in my left body and face. The muscle tone in my face is less on the left with slightly drooling eye lid and slightly drooping mouth. I don’t have any academic evidence for this, but it has been reported by a lot of people with Asperger’s and correlates to the right hemisphere not working as it should. 


    NLD or NVLD is also characterised by a high VIQ and low PIQ - however it is not listed in the DSM V or ICD 11, so there are not any diagnostic criteria for it. This makes diagnosis challenging as it is not well defined. There is also a school of thought that NLD and Asperger’s are similar/the same but one described from a psychiatric perspective (Aspergers) and one from a psychological perspective (NLD). It’s been a while since I read the neuroimaging studies but they also share a significant number of anatomical differences in the brain if I remember correctly.

    Im desperate to chat with a psychologist about my cognitive profile and get it reassessed and find out why it was ignored when I was 11.

    I am a healthcare professional, but I do not specialise in mental health or neurodivergence/neuroscience so as a disclaimer it is likely I have come to some incorrect conclusions. 

  • I think if you click on "more" you are given the choice to edit your post.

  • I think a large gap always means some kind of learning disability / a problem in the development. I found some info in Dutch, I put it into google translate because it is too tedious too translate :-) Here you indeed see that the Verbal/performance gap can imitate ASD and ADHD but it is not necessarily the same. My guess would be that a large gap will exacerbate ASD/ADHD.

    It says a difference of more than 12 points would be regarded as important. Usually in most individuals the v & p IQ develop parallel.

    What are the possible behavioral characteristics of these children?

    The following characteristics are described by Rob Brunia as typical of a gap child:
    (these are possible characteristics: not all characteristics are necessary)

    The child has difficulty with routine. Everything has to be told over and over again (washing, dressing, making bed, ...).
    The child is not able to clean up his own mess in the play area, bedroom, wardrobe, ...
    The child is forgetful and scattered and therefore does not carry out assignments.
    The child is often angry or sad. It does understand what it has to do but does not get it executed and the end result is disappointing. The child contradicts himself. (= chronic anger)
    The child counts slowly.
    The child has problems when it has to act in group behavior.
    A high degree of threshold fear. After all, everything that is new causes problems, so new becomes synonymous with threatening.
    The child will block if it can not deal with a new situation.
    The child is clumsy , for example, glass is knocked over at the table.
    The child develops tics.
    When writing, the child starts halfway through the line or page.
    The child has a low self-esteem ('I do not do that because I can not do that anyway').
    These children are often anxious, which also manifests itself in a multitude of nightmares.
    The child is extremely visually oriented.
    The behavior of such a child can lead to the diagnosis ADHD, Asperger's, dyslexia, while there is only a V / p gap.
    A child with a v / P gap can very well imitate what it sees and is therefore not discovered. Because it is verbally weaker, it is often also approached as a younger child and is constantly underestimated. 65% of these children are not detected. Their behavior is similar to that of a child with autistic behavior.

  • Ah and now I have spelt anomaly wrong and that is really annoying me :O and I don't know how to edit it !

  • Blast it I replied and it didn't work for some reason  . . .

    I agree.  I suspect like I said that those in the general population who have this anonoly are probably just not diagnosed.

    Besides I don't take everything professionals say too seriously.

    The EP who tested me said he'd never have guessed that I had ADHD :O  

    Well you wouldn't would you my lovely because I'd just popped 40mg of Lisdexamfetamine before you met me so I was firing on all cylinders, locked and loaded!

    he he ;)

  • Hi mummytosix! I also have this what we call a verbal-performance gap, I believe. my performance IQ is also more than 20 points lower. One of my nephews, who hasn't got a formal diagnosis but seems very typically aspergers has the gap the other way round (he has very good mathematical ability but has real verbal issues, slow to put things in to words). So I guess the gap can go both ways?

    I also had one therapist tell me I had NLD. I think I was told that NLD is a more neurological diagnosis whereas ASD is a more behavioural diagnosis (but I might be wrong). and that very many people with ASD have NLD. A bit like we also can have dyspraxia and ADHD with ASD. 

    I think it is important this gap, because it causes great frustration and misunderstanding. Like for me: I am good at talking, but I find it very hard to DO and plan stuff (very poor executive function).  I got a LOT of criticism at school, for being sloppy, untidy, forgetful, not doing stuff, not being able to do arts and crafts, or sports (spatial insight !) . So people think I am lazy. People think my desk is untidy because I want an untidy desk or can't be bothered. Whereas my nephew is excellent at seeing how to do things, how to make things is an expert at following tedious lego instructions and can build intricate model planes but he has a really hard time talking about it.

    So yes, I think these verbal-performance gaps are a very important part of these issues. Everyone with ASD is quite different though.

  • Thank you!  So I had a reply/explanation from EP which is as follows:

    Some research found that people with ASD/Aspergers do tend to show this pattern, however equally so do people who are not diagnosed and therefore it cannot be used diagnostically"  That said, it someone is showing other features it might be an indication of ASD but couldn't be used to diagnose.

    My thoughts:

    So many people are undiagnosed especially HFA and Aspergers especially in women that really that doesn't mean anything at all and so I still think it may be indicative.

  • The criteria  for NLD seems to be -fine/gross motor deficits, VIQ>PIQ by 15+(?) and social skills deficits .Apparently it doesn't matter if the VIQ and PIQ are both average in terms of meeting the VIQ>PIQ criteria , or so I've been told on a facebook NLD group. Spiky profiles are quite common with those who are neurodivergent.

  • Thanks Taltunes I will :)

  • Have a look at the recent thread on here on intelligence - there are lots of different types of intelligence.

  • Thanks Cassandro.  The short answer is I don't know!  I'm awaiting advice from professionals which I will feed back here just in case anyone else gets the same and is curious!

    Thanks ever so much for your reply.

    Kind regards.

    Savannah

  • I don't even really understand the terminology, but if your scores are 96 and 73, ie better than median for both, any kind of learning disability  or Nonverbal Learning Disorder would seem to be a poor description.  Is the idea that you're intellectually very able, but poor at applying that ability in practice? That I could relate to.  But such tests are not directly taken into account in an autism diagnosis as far as I know, since that's more to do with social communication. Nor really any other 'disorder' which will have their own tests of signs and 'symptoms' (not really appropriate language for autism, but it's evolved out of medical terminology).

    (In my case my latest non-verbal results, involving pattern matching etc, were in the top percentile, but verbal reasoning results slightly lower - then again I may be atypically atypical.)  'HFA' and 'Aspergers' are both rapidly becoming obsolete terms - 'autism without learning disability [or language delay]' is coming in.

    A bit more searching shows an opinion of a very roughly similar case: http://www.brainy-child.com/experts/disparity-VCI-in-WISC-IV.shtml

    Contradicting what I just said "A higher VIQ may also indicate some level of a mood disorder such as depression, or right-hemisphere brain damage." http://provereal.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/on-fsiq-viq-piq-general-discussion.html whereas lower VIQ (which I had) could be less education or autism.  Don't know.  It's a blog.

    What I have been reading recently maybe agrees with this last https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2016.00300/full "Autism thus involves absolutely or relatively enhanced abilities in the Perceptual domain, but reduced or preserved Verbal and Rotation skills, and absolutely or relatively enhanced fluid intelligence, but reduced or preserved crystallized intelligence."  Don't know.  It's a hypothesis.

    Given my supposedly very high IQ, I can't explain why I'm pretty poor at chess or cryptic crosswords. Possibly just can't get interested in them.