On Being Gifted and Disabled

I am what is politically correctly called twice-exceptional: intellectually gifted and disabled. The combination of these qualities has thrown me for quite a few challenges in my life. Mostly, it is impossible for most people to see both my intelligence and my disabilities, so they expect me to be either gifted or disabled, not both. [...]

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PTSD in People with Intellectual Disabilities

When searching for studies on post-traumatic symptoms, I came across an interesting paper on PTSD among individuals with an intellectual disability (ID. This study is the first systematic review of prevalence, assessment and treatment of PTSD in people with ID. There are several reasons why people with intellectual disabilities are more susceptible to PTSD than [...]

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Autism, Intellectual Disability, and the Concept of “Primary Disability”

Over at Autism Speaking, there’s an interesting post on autism and intellectual disability. It points out a few misconceptions about autism and intellectual disability. For example, Kanner and Asperger originally both excluded intellectually disabled persons from their autism descriptions, so it is not true that autism with intellectual disability is the original or “real” autism. [...]

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Autism, Intellectual Disability, and Research Participation

Harold L. Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunwswick has yet another post criticizing the new autism spectrum disorder DSM-V category, at least, that’s what I thought. I told Harold for the umpteenth time that there is no evidence of an autism-with-intellectual-disability subtype and that such a subtype doesn’t exist in DSM-IV, either. His statitistics, [...]

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Autism, False Positives and DSM-V: Is It about Intellectual Disability Again?

Over at Opposing Views, Val writes an interesting article about the DSM-V and the potential overdiagnosis of autism. In her opinion, the criteria for autism are once again broadened to include more able persons, and those with intellectual disabilities are overlooked. I agree in part with her. There is a risk that normal variation and [...]

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Highly Intelligent vs. High-Functioning

The fact that I refuse to buy into “functioning levels” with regard to autism, says nothing about my recognition that some people have more abilities than others. In fact, every autistic is different, but there are some more obvious ways in which autistics can have better or worse abilities. Intelligence is one such thing. I [...]

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Usefulness of DSM-IV-TR Criteria in Diagnosing Autism in Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Harold L. Doherty recently posted a link on Twitter to a study on the usefulness of the diagnostic criteria for autism in children with intellectual disabilities. The study was published in the June, 2010 issue of Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. The study tested 89 children with intellectual disabilities on a variety of [...]

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Autism and Intellectual Disability Again: Complicating Factors vs. Denial

Alan Griswold of Autistic Aphorisms had an interesting post up yesterday about autism and intellectual disability, in which he described the complexities involved in measuring IQ in autistic individuals. Harold Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick wrote a response in which he accused Mr. Griswold of not wanting to be associated with intellectual disability. [...]

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Autistics and Stigma: It Shoudln’t Be About Hidden Intelligence

Harold Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick, in his most recent post, criticizes the assertion that the stigma associated with autism is fading. The reasoning behind Doherty’s view is that, while the stigma associated with Asperger’s Syndrome and high-functioining autism may be fading – which, I might say, is not to say it doesn’t [...]

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Adaptive Behavior in Autistics with Normal Intelligence

Common belief, backed up somewhat by the DSM-IV, states that people with hifh-functioning autism, and especially Asperger’s Syndrome, cannot have problems with adaptive behavior other than in the domain of social interaction, at least not in childhood. Since the DSM-IV says nothing about adult adaptive functioning, the belief that Asperger’s adults by definition score normally [...]

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