Intelligence and ASD

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It can be very confusing for parents and educators to understand the diagnosis and the ability of children with ASD as children on the spectrum show a wide range of abilities as well as challenges. Some children with ASD have difficulty learning, and some show signs of lower than normal intellectual functioning. Other children have normal or even above average intelligence. They may be very talented in a specialized area. These children learn quickly but have great difficulty in communicating and generalizing learned information to social situations. Some ASD children may have superior rote memory while having difficulty with more abstract and complex concepts. Each child varies in their pattern and presentation of symptoms, difficulties, strengths or abilities. The “spectrum” is not linear but multi-dimensional with different strengths and weaknesses.