Asperger's Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asperger's Syndrome, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, medication.

Do individuals with high functioning autism have the IQ profile associated with nonverbal learning disability?

Williams DL, Goldstein G, Kojkowski N, Minshew NJ

Department of Speech Language Pathology, Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, United States.

Previously researchers have noted a high level of occurrence of the IQ profile associated with nonverbal learning disability (NLD) in Asperger syndrome (ASP) but not in high functioning autism (HFA). We examined the IQ profile scores of a large sample of children (n = 69) and adults (n = 77) with HFA, stringently diagnosed according to ADOS, ADI-R, and DSM-IV criteria, and a corresponding sample of typical child (n = 72) and adult controls (n = 107). At least one of the three primary components of the Wechsler pattern seen in NLD were found in 17-26% of the children and 20-32% of the adults with HFA. All three components occurred in slightly more than 5% of the children and adults with autism. Overall, the VIQ > PIQ profile seen in NLD occurred in 18% of the sample of individuals stringently diagnosed with HFA. Therefore, obtaining this IQ profile is not a valid clinical discriminator between NLD and HFA.

Published 2 June 2008 in Res Autism Spectr Discord, 2(2): 353-361.
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