Published on 12, July, 2020
We often get posts on the form asking for advice with autistic children. And I can't help but notice the requests overwhelmingly relate to low functioning autistic children. As someone who is quite high functioning and had a very disrupted and turbulent childhood I can guarantee you it's not because high functioning autistic children don't have just as many issues. Nore is it that high functioning autistic children are particularly rare. We recently had a discussion on this point in another thread and figures I dug up indicated around 40%+ of autistic children being diagnosed these days are of average or above average intelligence.
So the question I'm asking is this. Why don't those parents come looking for help? Is it because the main stream schooling and support systems are so much better at supporting high functioning children? I doubt it. Is it because they tend to think of their child’s behaviour as 'naughty' not 'autistic?' Is it maybe they don't accept or agree with their child’s diagnosis? What do you think it is?
More to the point:
Edit ps: For the simplification of this entire discussion and to avoid a long drawnout arguments over semantics. Instead of high functioning we shall say high IQ meaning an IQ of 85+ and instead of low functioning we will say low IQ meaning an IQ less than 85. As measured on a standard clinically approved IQ test.
If I remember correctly, some of the latest figures on intelligence in autistic people (difficult to measure accurately!) suggest 40% above average intelligence, 38% below and 22% around the average. This suggests that autistic people tend to cluster towards either extreme, rather than towards the middle ground.
By definition, 50% of any sample would be below average, given that on a standard distribution the mean, median, and modal "averages" are 50%. In terms of diagnosis, my unscientific guess is that individuals who are at the lower end of the spectrum will have the highest support needs, comorbid learning disabilities, extreme communication difficulties etc., and would come to the attention of services. Those at the higher end of the distribution are more likely to be employed or in education, and to be experiencing other issues such as specific learning difficulties (60% comorbidity) and stress. My guess is that someone with an "average" IQ (say 1 standard deviation, 85-115) could be masking and getting by, possibly employed below their capacity, and may not seek a diagnosis. In the same way, some dyslexics survive school but struggle with the increasing demands of higher education, and get diagnosed at university.
Sorry. How is the intelligence being measured, because there are lots of different types of intelligence, puzzles, visual exercises, memory, so someone might score badly on one but very well on another? Or is it taken as an average among all types of intelligence. There may also be a problem with the environment the person is born into. Is autism spread evenly among all socio-economic backgrounds (don't know if this is the right phrase) or is it more common in some then others? This might then affect how the intelligence is measured. E.g Richer parents have more access to buying puzzles and so on so kids grow up to be better at solving puzzles. I don't really know.