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Why is "high intellect" associated with Asperger's?

Beverly said:
You know, some of those gifted NTs that slide into Aspie mode so readily might not be NT at all, they might be Aspies who have the ability to use their NT façade for extended periods and, do so nearly flawlessly, like me. The might just be really smart, really talented Aspies for whom memorizing social rules and cues and, acting come easily - along with whatever else the excel at. Might be more of us in the forefront of more fields that you think.
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I know there are a lot more like me that slipped under the radar because we adapted ourselves to our surroundings without assistance.
 
Society is drunk on stereotypes and always has been. A "queue" I might add that Hollywood loves to follow. :eek:
 
There definitely are Ste11aeres, it doesn't take an Aspie to focus so intently on their area of interest or expertise that they loose focus of everything else and, it doesn't take an NT to be a skilled socialite. Just one or the other of us is more apt to be able to do one or the other more easily than the other.

When you look at groups of people capable of both, it's difficult to tell one form the other without at least interviewing or, possibly testing all of them.

I've know Aspies who are prone to seeing Aspie traits in almost everyone but, the reverse is true as well NTs see things we consider Aspie as normal. When it comes to phycology, I believe every single person on the planet could be diagnosed with SOMETHING if the one doing the diagnosing set their mind to digging until they found enough oddities about the person to give them something. It is an inexact science with educated guesses being the best they can give us.
 
Beverly said:
There definitely are Ste11aeres, it doesn't take an Aspie to focus so intently on their area of interest or expertise that they loose focus of everything else and, it doesn't take an NT to be a skilled socialite. Just one or the other of us is more apt to be able to do one or the other more easily than the other.

When you look at groups of people capable of both, it's difficult to tell one form the other without at least interviewing or, possibly testing all of them.

I've know Aspies who are prone to seeing Aspie traits in almost everyone but, the reverse is true as well NTs see things we consider Aspie as normal. When it comes to phycology, I believe every single person on the planet could be diagnosed with SOMETHING if the one doing the diagnosing set their mind to digging until they found enough oddities about the person to give them something. It is an inexact science with educated guesses being the best they can give us.
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That'd maybe work if you ignored the main feature of disorders - you have to be clinically significantly impaired. If you can go about life with no more issues than you'd expect as an average then there's nothing wrong with you. The problems may be invisible (those with invisible disabilities) but they need to exist. Without that then diagnosing would be pointless as everyone could get a label and they'd all be meaningless. They're there so see who needs help, be it medication, benefits, services etc.
 
Okay, that which is commonly understood to be gifted NTs (may not be NTs after all, but a different kind of neuro-diverse).
 
unsurewhattoname said:
You just said NT. NT is neurotypical, meaning they are not neurodiverse.
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Sometimes the word "NT" is used to mean typical-neurotypical in the most literal meaning, but often it's simply used to mean anyone who isn't on the AS spectrum. Really, though, there is no standard model for the mind/brain. People are quite varied.
 
Ste11aeres said:
Sometimes the word "NT" is used to mean typical-neurotypical in the most literal meaning, but often it's simply used to mean anyone who isn't on the AS spectrum. Really, though, there is no standard model for the mind/brain. People are quite varied.
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The more you narrow it down, the less people it covers, so much so that NT can become the minority and ND the majority, which is in my opinion stupid and goes against the meaning. Just like narrowing ASD and saying only this profile can be ASD is seen as negatively, the same should apply to NT. You don't need to be an extroverted party animal to be NT for the same reason you don't need to be rain man to have ASD.
 
If you ever met someone who met every single psychological criteria for normal perfectly, imagine how weird that person would actually be.
 
Last time I looked at studies on the subject, I thought all autistics together were a little lower then the average. Taking people with Aspergers alone came in about average or slightly higher. But any such measurement is not going to be exact at this point as there is still a lot of uncertainty in the medical profession as to who has what, and if at all.

Aspergers as a diagnosis has since been deleted (in the USA) and its being more viewed as beads on an abacus. I even wonder if IQ tests are valid with autism. Isn't that like testing English speaking people in Greek?
 
While I do think mental retardation (non PC?) and the lower scale of Autism is common, I think many Autistics are just very apathetic to testing (and many other things in general) which is why some score much lower than where they are mentally (remember, it's still only an estimate).

I.Q tests have been a way to marginalize people for years
 
I've taken, at least, five different types of formal IQ tests (at different times) and their results have been pretty consistent. I would have to know way more about psychometry, neurology and IQ test construction to fake that consistency deliberately.

That all goes to say that they are measuring a quantifiable thing.
 
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I think most aspies are probably smarter than they give themselves credit for. I went through most of my life thinking I was dumb just because I was unable to learn the way the schools teach.

I knew that I was good at some things like understanding how things work and fixing things. When I started taking these online IQ tests I realized my brain actually works pretty good. I had just never given it the chance to be unleashed.
 
I suspect aspies who are able to function well and navigate the world easily do in fact have higher IQs. You need above average intelligence to overcome the pitfalls and obstacles we face. Those of us who can learn to play the games required to achieve measurable success are lucky and need our special gifts to offset the heavy baggage we also carry. Most of those on the spectrum I have encountered do not come anywhere close to being "successful." They are functionally disabled and cannot live on their own without a great deal of help from close loving relatives or a caretaker.
 
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I think that IQ levels in the Aspie population vary just as they do in the general population, with the difference that if they have both autism and a lower tested (if not actual) IQ, they most likely have other learning disabilities which significantly affect their performance in the IQ test, are likely to be less well adapted (lower functioning) and diagnosed with classic autism and not Asperger's. I don't believe that autism itself affects IQ, as IQ levels among the autisic population are so varied, but is often the case that many autistic people have an uneven spread of abilities - for example, being very mathetically minded, but not good at learning languages - or, in my case, the opposite.

Also, aspies often have an extremely long term memory, and are very knowledgeable in certain areas, and that can give the impression of having a very IQ, even though if the person's IQ is tested, they might be found to have an uneven spread of abilities.
 
To me two very bright scientist connect Aspergers to high intelligence they are Paul Dirac, and Kurt Godel think it would be hard to refute either one of them were not autistic, unique. and highly intelligent.
 
It promotes a certain profile of skills, makes your technical skills better, people skills worse. The baseline is different for different people. It's as if you put a blue filter on another colour, the outcome depends on the original colour, while the filter promotes a tendency.
 
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