Hidden Autistic Intelligence

In this week’s Newsweek, there’s a report about autistics showing higher IQs when given a non-interactive test than on the standard Wechsler scale. This means that autistics may be labeled retarded because they don’t show their intelligence on a Wechsler IQ test, when actually the problem is their lack of social interaction. Consequently, unfortunately, people think a child is not intelligent and will assume their good reading or mathematical capacity is just a side effect of their autism, a preoccupation, when, in fact, this is one of their strengths. Unfortunately, most professionals and parents are unlikely to realize this anytime soon. After all, if a child doesn’t show their intelligence in a way that is useful to others, how will people around them realize it’s there?