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How come Donna Williams has a low IQ?

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hartzofspace
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09 Sep 2011, 5:02 pm

pensieve wrote:
You forgot that your stress levels and other disorders such as anxiety or depression can affect your score too.

True. I've had my score fluctuate from 120 to 140 with the same type of test.


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31 Oct 2021, 11:12 am

AlexWelshman wrote:
I'm kind of curious as to how come Donna Williams is really intelegent & high functioning, but yet she has an IQ lower than 70? Any idea's why that is? I know IQ's ~& autistic people don't go together well, but seriously... How can Donna have an IQ lower than 70?


Thats the first time I hear it.

Now that I read your post, I have a different question. How come she was labeled high functioning if she has low IQ? I thought IQ above 70 is the "definition" of high functioning.



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31 Oct 2021, 11:31 am

QFT wrote:
AlexWelshman wrote:
I'm kind of curious as to how come Donna Williams is really intelegent & high functioning, but yet she has an IQ lower than 70? Any idea's why that is? I know IQ's ~& autistic people don't go together well, but seriously... How can Donna have an IQ lower than 70?


Thats the first time I hear it.

Now that I read your post, I have a different question. How come she was labeled high functioning if she has low IQ? I thought IQ above 70 is the "definition" of high functioning.


I've heard "70 or higher".

Also, although it's officially defined by IQ, often informally it's defined by things like being able to speak and write, live independently, be employed, etc, and she's done OK in a lot of those respects. In fact, despite having a higher IQ and better receptive language ability, I function worse in activities of daily living than she does, judging from her autobiographies.



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31 Oct 2021, 11:41 am

Ettina wrote:
In fact, despite having a higher IQ and better receptive language ability


What does the word "receptive" mean?

I thought her language ability is really good. I certainly won't be able to write something as nice as she writes for even few pages much less the whole book. And I have 126 IQ.



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31 Oct 2021, 11:47 am

QFT wrote:
Ettina wrote:
In fact, despite having a higher IQ and better receptive language ability


What does the word "receptive" mean?

I thought her language ability is really good. I certainly won't be able to write something as nice as she writes for even few pages much less the whole book. And I have 126 IQ.


Receptive is understanding others communicating, expressive is communicating your own thoughts.

Donna Williams describes missing 1/4th of the words in most statements people say to her, and having to guess at the meaning.

My impression is that her expressive language is better than her receptive language, which is an unusual pattern - the opposite is far more common. But she's not the only one with that profile.