Brief report: social and communication abilities and disabilities in higher functioning individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome.
High IQ and mild symptoms do not guard against low adaptive scores in ASD—assess real-life skills either way.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fullana et al. (2007) looked at higher-functioning people with autism and Asperger syndrome.
They gave each person an IQ test and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales.
The goal was to see if high IQ or milder autism signs meant better daily living skills.
What they found
High IQ did not promise strong daily skills.
Both the autism and Asperger groups scored low on Vineland, even when their IQs were average or above.
Milder autism signs did not lift adaptive scores either.
How this fits with other research
Amore et al. (2011) later tested 1,089 verbal youth and got the same picture: IQ explains only half of adaptive skill.
Chang et al. (2013) repeated the test in Taiwanese children and again found the biggest gap in social skills.
Austin et al. (2015) tracked the same kids over time and showed the gap widens as they grow—something the 2007 snapshot could not see.
Together these papers form a line: IQ and autism severity are weak guides to real-life independence.
Why it matters
You cannot trust "high-functioning" on paper. Always run Vineland or ABAS before you write goals. Target daily living and social skills even when IQ looks fine.
Get CEUs on This Topic — Free
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ on-demand CEUs including ethics, supervision, and clinical topics like this one. Plus a new live CEU every Wednesday.
Pull Vineland on every "high-functioning" learner this week and add one daily-living objective that matches the lowest subdomain score.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with higher functioning autism (HFA) fail to translate their cognitive potential into real-life adaptation, and the severity of their symptoms is considerable despite their intellectual ability. This paper reports on a subsample from a larger study (A. Klin et al., in press) analyzed here by autism spectrum subtypes. It focuses on the nature of ability and disability in HFA and Asperger syndrome (AS) in relation to age and IQ. Participants included 32 individuals with autism and 35 with AS. Individuals with AS had significantly higher Verbal IQ scores and less symptomatology than individuals with autism, but their Vineland scores were equally impaired, highlighting the adaptive deficits in ASD regardless of classification. No relationship was found between adaptive functioning and symptom severity.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2007 · doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0288-6