low functioning vs high functioning

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From what I know based on my own 'research '(the only official IQ test I did at 15 I was never told the result )my cognitive profile is quite spiky, with crystallised/verbal intelligence being much higher than fluid/non-verbal intelligence.
How that impacts on an estimation of functioning level I'm not at all sure.

This phenomenon (the widely disparate Verbal and Performance scores amongst autistic people) was really not considered until recently.

It turns out that this is actually quite common with people with autism. Both high Performance and low Verbal scores, and vice versa, exists.

And yet from what I know ,when assessing the IQ of a group of people on the spectrum, there doesn't seem to be a great difference in performance vs verbal IQ. It seems to me that taken individually a gap is all too obvious, but assessed as a group PIQ >VIQ and VIQ>PIQ cancel each other out .

People with an Aspergian-type presentation tend to exhibit VIQ > PIQ

People with a "classical"-type presentation tend to exhibit PIQ > VIQ.

Yes, it's quite plausible that they "cancel each other out."


Interestingly, I fit the "classical," rather than the "Aspergian" pattern (because of my speech delay). But my VIQ is always more than my PIQ.

This definition seems obsolete. DSM5 defines three levels of required support as independent dimension from

https://images.pearsonclinical.com/imag ... sorder.pdf

^^Absolutely

In that sense, the DSM-V changed everything.

My PIQ is > than my VIQ. I never had a noticeable speech delay. I’m considered to have classic autism.

Here is a link to one of the best explanations for autism spectrum I have seen:
https://the-art-of-autism.com/understan ... planation/
It is not a two dimensional scale from mild to high or low to high.

It is a good explanation. There are many modalities to humans' relationships with other humans.

High functioning are more likely to find employment and cope with setbacks. Low functioning are less likely to find employment and unable to cope with setbacks.

A “low-functioning” person wouldn’t be expected to get a job, for the most part.

from what i can tell from here, high functioning are those who from externals pass for normal, nobody would have much of a clue they were not NT. people like daryl hannah and dan ackroyd [both on the tippy top of the spectrum]. bill gates has never publicized whether or not he's been tested, but he seems to give out more signs of not being NT. relative to those star performers, my own experience convinces me i am in the middle- my odd-duckness is obvious from a mile away to anybody who is paying attention. but i managed to function in the military, albeit poorly. in retrospect, i saw other higher-spectrumey GIs in the army as well, majority of 'em were my bosses. the ones who weren't my bosses, didn't seem to fare too well in terms of their seeming to be getting the bulk of non-disciplinary chapter discharges for failure to adapt to military service, those poor souls seemed to me to be less lucky than me or lower-functioning.

I find more similarities with people on the autism spectrum than differences.
I relate to the social preferences, communication styles and sensory challenges we share, across the different levels.
Besides, functioning ability can fluctuate, based on environmental factors for example.
If my environment enables me, I'll get by ok. If it doesn't I struggle to be independent.

Similar to how a person with wealth will struggle less with meeting their basic needs than a person living hand to mouth.

Not to mention autistic burn outs... before mine I was getting by, now I struggle with many more things. I lost functioning skills that took a lifetime to develop, if they had been abilities, I would have retained them.
Am I more autistic now because I lost functioning skills, or was I always this autistic and my environment enabled me to mistake skills for abilities and take for granted my fortune of potluck?

Yes, this.

Clinically, the terms high/low functioning don't mean much, as nowadays the clinicians break autism down into three "levels." There are also problems with these labels, but here's an example of how they work, nonetheless:

In my case, I have a 115 IQ, graduated cum laude with a degree in English and never even remotely needed Special Ed (I was a good academic achiever), currently work (and have occasionally worked in the past) full-time, drive a car (admittedly need the help of GPS and/or MapQuest to get around), and can get around 24/7 unattended, including buying groceries, getting gas, going to the post office, going to church, going to the pharmacy, and so forth. I understand personal space, "please and thank you," can make most basic small talk, can manage average enough eye contact, etc. I'd seem level 1, or what some might say "high functioning," to a casual observer; perhaps even largely neurotypical on a standard baseline day.

However, I'm a level 2 autist because I'm poor at reading deeper social cues and have lots of trouble responding to unexpected crisis-type situations. I didn't have a stable job until my mid thirties, still don't know much about initiating conversation beyond a "hello," have no close friends I socialize with regularly, and probably wouldn't be able to fully function on my own without my husband's help.

i was spec ed until 6th grade.

I was "special ed" from nursery school through 5th grades. My mother couldn't pay for the "special school" I went to, so I was placed in a regular public school in 6th grade. I didn't fail academically---but I failed socially. Almost got kicked out in 8th grade.

In 9th grade, I was enrolled in a school for "gifted underachievers." I graduated from that school after 12th grade.