Published on 12, July, 2020
'High functioning' is a term commonly used to describe people diagnosed with autism without an intellectual disability.However, despite the term's prevalence in medical journals and everyday use, new research shows the term can be misleading and advocates have called for its use to be dropped.Post-doctoral researcher Dr Gail Alvares said while 'high functioning' is used to describe people diagnosed with autism who have IQs in the normal range, it does not indicate their functional status.A new study has found labelling children with autism 'high functioning' can be misleading.
However, despite the term's prevalence in medical journals and everyday use, new research shows the term can be misleading and advocates have called for its use to be dropped.
Post-doctoral researcher Dr Gail Alvares said while 'high functioning' is used to describe people diagnosed with autism who have IQs in the normal range, it does not indicate their functional status.A new study has found labelling children with autism 'high functioning' can be misleading.
www.brisbanetimes.com.au/.../new-research-shows-high-functioning-is-an-inaccurate-autism-label-20190619-p51z9t.html
The gap between expected adaptive functioning due to IQ and actual level of adaptive functioning can be quite large.
I doubt that many kids have actually had an IQ test.
In reality the level of functioning relates to childhood development milestones and comparisons with the National Curriculum for English and maths.
High functioning basically means no speech or language delays and comparable academic ability in English and maths to what is expected from an individual in their year group. Historically this would have meant that a person with ASD who met this criteria would be considered to have a behavioural problem because SEN was defined as being behind in English and maths or having speech and language impairments.
@Arran That's pretty much what I thought, originally IQ measurement was pegged to development stages (albeit usually in culturally discriminatory ways). I was ahead developmentally in terms of learning so was referred for behavioral problems which turned out to be autism. So you can be autistic and 'behind' developmental stage or ahead. They used to differentiate aspergers and high functioning autism by language delay or not. As an adult I'm not sure what it means though, I assume it's one of the reasons they insist on diagnosing adults historically as though they are children. I'm inclined to agree that IQ/cognitive ability don't have much to say about how "functional" one is in everyday life as an autistic person or about 'how autistic' one is.
Before Asperger syndrome was recognised it was common for children who met or exceeded the academic ability in English and maths expected for their year group to be misdiagnosed with having behavioural problems or emotional and behavioural difficulties.
The National Curriculum was already fully implemented when Asperger syndrome became recognised but there was probably greater disparity when it came to levels of academic ability between different LEAs or even different schools in the years before the National Curriculum.
I'm vaguely aware that general knowledge tests were also used to supplement English and maths tests but I don't have any details of whether there was cultural or other biases in them.