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
Parents
  • 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.

  • 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

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

  • 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.

Reply
  • 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.

Children
  • 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.