Published on 12, July, 2020
Collectively as autists, and as a wider society. We need to stop assuming/pressuming other people's ability to function and support needs. Especially online. We are all strangers. Nobody here really knows what it is like to live our lives when we step away from the computer. What we tell people here is just snippets and the basis of absolutely nothing anyone else can say or prescribe with anything other than a faux qualification. Especially the assumption that someone's ability to communicate in a text based format means they do not go or are not in fact nonverbal irl, or has any bearing on the other areas of their life.
That's really it. That's the post.
Nobody sees the adaptive functioning < IQ when I'm posting online. I occasionally mention it. It falls on deaf/daft ears for the most part.
Hi, I’ve not seen the phrase ‘adaptive functioning < IQ’ before, would you mind explaining what it means?
Using Bing chat
Adaptive functioning refers to the ability to manage the demands of day-to-day life1. It includes areas such as self-care, travel, shopping, cooking, fine motor skills, and communication1. In the context of autism, adaptive functioning is a fundamental aspect of the phenotype associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)2.
Research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit significant impairments in adaptive functioning, particularly in social skills3. These impairments can impact their ability to meet the demands of everyday life4. For instance, they may learn some of these skills at a slower rate than their non-autistic peers1.
A recurrent finding is that there is a pronounced discrepancy between the level of cognitive ability and adaptive functioning, especially among higher-ability individuals4. This means that even though an individual with ASD might have a high IQ, they might still struggle with adaptive skills like social communication or self-care4.
Key factors associated with adaptive functioning in ASD include age, IQ, and levels of ASD symptom severity4. Older age, lower IQ, and more severe social-communication symptoms are associated with lower adaptive functioning4. However, sensory ASD symptoms, repetitive and restricted behaviors, as well as symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, and depression, were not found to be independently associated with adaptive functioning4.
These findings suggest that it is the core social communication problems that define ASD that contribute to the adaptive function impairments that people with ASD experience4. Therefore, interventions targeting adaptive skills acquisition should be flexible in their timing and intensity across developmental periods, levels of cognitive ability, and take into account social-communicative ASD symptom severity4.
Learn more1
aims-2-trials.eu2
mdpi.com3
link.springer.com4
docs.autismresearchcentre.com5
pearsonassessments.com
This is interesting and also emphasises the point that especially for hidden disabilities like ours, post-diagnostic autism assessments following an autism diagnosis are vital, to both assess our level of autism and our support needs going forward, in order to access appropriate support - too often, especially in relation to mental health issues and in hidden disabilities like autism, the “one size fits all” approach and mindset is used and applied because the mindset and attitudes are that mental health issues and hidden disabilities like autism are seen as (somehow) “not real” and most people will simply not stop making incorrect and judgemental assumptions about our hidden disabilities and mental health issues, which is already the poor relation when it comes to NHS and other funding - this is clearly a set of mindsets and attitudes that must change if we are to have a decent quality of life in a society that proports to be “caring” and “compassionate” - recent news reports about Labour wanting to “privatise the NHS” and many similar reports clearly show us that we have a long way to go, as there are strong parallels with the struggles for LGBT rights and equality
Yes, that's right. My AF is not at a level expected based on my IQ. I was very late diagnosed with Asperger's ASD, at the age of 62. I had been a psychiatric patient since autumn 1973. I had to move, and come under a different mental health team to get the diagnosis . I was seen as awkward, having a character defect, by my previous mental health team for not matching up to what they expected uniformly good/average/or bad at everything. They had zilch understanding re the spiky profile often seen with autism. Without mentioning scores I can truly say I find high range IQ tests easier than everyday practical tasks most people take in their stride.I moved to be near my daughter, not blood related but we regard ourselves as father and daughter. She was a huge help in arranging the move. That included talking to mental health services here prior to my moving, and debunking a lot of myths that had built up about me. She herself has had over 25 years working with disabled and vulnerable people. I'm hoping you'll be able to read these links. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8324508/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.856084/fullhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361319852831