Over the years, researchers have fre- quently noted that many individuals with exceptional gifts manifest autistic-like behaviors. Further, an increasing number of individuals with autism or Asperger's are identified as being gifted. These twice-exceptional learners are in good company.
A gifted child with a disability like Asperger's Disorder (or a learning disability or Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder) is referred to as a twice-exceptional child.
About 70% of autistic people have an intellectual disability, which means they have an IQ lower than 70. The remaining 30% have intelligence that ranges from average to gifted.
Asperger syndrome is not a curable condition. However, being one of the milder forms in the Autism Spectrum Disorders, with little language development difficulties and normal or high IQ, this disorder allows a child to live a normal or near normal life.
Intelligence, Special Interest, Memory
Ability to absorb and retain large amounts of information, especially about topics of special interest. Ability to think in visual images. Be self-motivated, independent learners. Propensity to think outside the box and generate novel solutions to problems.
In some cases, their IQ may be very high, even in the genius range. There are, however, different kinds of smarts.
While the term Asperger's Syndrome no longer formally exists in the diagnosis and insurance world, it is still a common term used to refer to an individual with high-functioning autism.
Long-term research that involved following a group of individuals with autism for two decades indicates that the average life expectancy for some autistic people is about 39 years. Furthermore, this population generally succumbed to health complications about 20 years earlier than individuals who do not have autism.
One popular theory is that people with Asperger's syndrome and other autistic disorders lack a "theory of mind" — the intuitive understanding that others have their own thoughts and feelings. As a result, they cannot imagine their way into the minds of others to anticipate their responses.
Asperger's syndrome is lifelong. But symptoms tend to improve over time.
Research shows that more than half of all autistic individuals have an above-average IQ, while roughly 16% have an IQ higher than 130. But having high intelligence doesn't mean that autistic individuals don't experience some challenges associated with the diagnosis.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that nearly half of individuals with ASD have average or higher IQ. Boys with ASD are more likely to have average or higher IQ than girls. Patients with ASD and higher IQ remain at risk for not being identified.
The difference is that the gifted child may be more selective and able to filter out and discard certain sources of information whereas the child with Asperger's will not (Cash). The child with Asperger's will simply memorize everything there is to know about a cer- tain and sometimes bizarre topic.
According to the standard criteria there does not seem much doubt that Isaac Newton, Henry Cavendish and Albert Einstein were Asperger people; in fact Newton appears to be the earliest known example of a person with any form of autism.
Generally, children and teens with Asperger's Syndrome can speak with others and can perform fairly well in their school work. However, they have trouble understanding social situations and subtle forms of communication like body language, humor and sarcasm.
Autism Prevalence
31% of children with ASD have an intellectual disability (intelligence quotient [IQ] <70), 25% are in the borderline range (IQ 71–85), and 44% have IQ scores in the average to above average range (i.e., IQ >85). Autism affects all ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
Finally, we recently observed in a larger sample of patients, who presented in specialized outpatient clinics for ASD, a bimodal IQ distribution within ASD individuals [38.2% below average intelligence (i.e., IQ < 85), 40% with above average intelligence (IQ > 115) and 21.8% with an average intelligence (IQ between 85 ...
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Although MRI is not required for diagnosing Asperger syndrome, it can be helpful for identifying cortical defects in the right-central perisylvian area and incomplete formation of the posterior-inferior frontal gyrus (ie, pars opercularis and pars triangularis).
The following disorders share many of the same symptoms as autism, which may result in a misdiagnosis: ADHD. ASD shares several symptoms with ADHD, including difficulties with impulsivity, executive functioning, and hyperactivity. They also frequently co-occur.
Asperger Syndrome was characterized as a “pervasive developmental disability.” That is, people with this profile may often appear or act younger than others of the same age.
When it comes to Asperger's vs. autism, Asperger's generally features less severe symptoms and more higher functioning. Despite no longer being a separate diagnosis, Asperger's remains an accurate description of the symptoms and characteristics of some people on the Autism Spectrum.
Aspies tend to express love through practical actions, whereas NTs are more likely to express love through words or symbolic actions.
It should be noted that though kids with Asperger's don't usually have language deficits-they can be very talkative, in fact-many on the autism spectrum do have difficulty communicating verbally, which is partly why new diagnostic criteria will stress social communication deficits and restricted interests.
Asperger's in adults typically causes issues with communication, emotion regulation and interpretation, social interactions, and behavior.