Do most people with autism have Learning Difficulties?

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AlexWelshman
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16 Jun 2011, 5:51 am

I've been wondering something. My mum seems to think that people with autism (not including Aspergers) have Learning Difficulties. Is this so? I was diagnosed with 'High Functioning Autism' after I had, had a bit of therapy, but I also have Learning Difficulties. I thought it was just a comorbid, but aparently (excluding asperger) most autistic people do have LD's. Is this true? :?:



Simonono
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16 Jun 2011, 5:59 am

Well I do / did in school. Everything was extremely difficult to learn. I'm not like everyone else on here who are Einsteins.



turkey87953
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16 Jun 2011, 6:12 am

I have learning problems. I have PDD-NOS if that makes any diffrence.



AlexWelshman
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16 Jun 2011, 6:20 am

What type of autism do you have?



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16 Jun 2011, 6:22 am

Some things I can learn like greased lightning. Others I'm still in the dark on fifty years later. And I'm fairly high functioning, for an autistic.



izzeme
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16 Jun 2011, 6:24 am

another one here; along with my diagnosis of PDD+HFA+tourettes+several others (i seemed to have the full set; but this was before i got 'upgraded' to AS) i got an IQ test that put me on the border of 'above average intellegence' and 'gifted'; yet i was the slowest of the class in learning; especially in elementary school.

this is not so much a matter of not being able to learn, but a type of learning incompatible with a normal school system.
a comparable effect has been seen in my country (and others too, probarbly) that changing many assignments, especially maths, from pure exersises to story-telling based made it harder for boys to actually figure out the question.
example; instead of asking "calculate: 50-4*33.6", they'd ask "debby wants to buy 4 jeans, costing $33.60 each; however, she only has $50, how much more money does she need to get?"



OJani
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16 Jun 2011, 7:08 am

I also suspect that my overall intelligence / learning ability ratio is somewhat imbalanced compared to others from my age group. I had no problem with learning in primary school, I took in knowledge simply by listening at classes. Later, when I had to learn to learn structured, I missed significantly the ease I experienced before. My memory seems to take in informations most efficiently when they are structured like a mechanical or visual model. The more the knowledge can be derived from such models the more I can learn it. The more a knowledge is verbal the more I have difficulty with it. Also, I can not memorize large amounts of lexical/encyclopedic/factual knowledge. Repetition can help a lot, obviously I need more repetition than others to actually remember something. Oh, I forget quickly, either.

So, eventually, I'm sure I'm not the ideal AS person. While I'm relatively intelligent and prone to search for new ways of cognition, I'm short of memory most of the time, fail to recall things both from my long term and short term memory. I'm not sure this rules out an AS diagnosis, though.


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16 Jun 2011, 9:49 am

I was put into special education from 1st to 10th grade. When I was evaluated for Aspergers the psychologist said he saw no signs of learning disabilities. He also added that he thought I was cheated out of a proper education being put into special education without any signs of difficulties. They mistook my Aspergers for ADHD. One of the reasons I did not bother with college was because I thought I was learning disabled and could not handle college level courses so I did not want to waste my parent's money.


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littlelily613
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16 Jun 2011, 10:02 am

Not everyone with autism has an academic learning disability (I guess not being able to understand social cues, etc can be a type of learning disability...but I assume you are talking about academics?) Anyway, I have a few issues, but nothing that is serious enough to be considered a disability. I have an A average at school, with a 3.8 GPA. Still, I have issues with understanding abstract math and scientific concepts. Sometimes, even though I was a very precocious reader, I do have trouble with some reading comprehension as well--depends on the information though.

Oh, and I have HFA, btw.



Joe90
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16 Jun 2011, 10:07 am

It's really weird - they say Aspies have a higher IQ than NTs, but if I'm meant to have a higher IQ than NTs then how come I was behind (or just about average) on everything all through school? I was put in the ''special needs group'' from 4 years old to 16 years old, and the other children in that group weren't Aspies but had learning difficulties, and intellectually I was on the same wavelength as them.

I was never no genius at school. All of my GCSE grades were below C, I struggled on studying for the exams, I was put in the bottom sets in all lessons (except English, which I was in the top set, but still struggled to keep up with the rest).

Hello? Does this sound like I have a higher IQ than NTs?! I think my social IQ is higher than my intellectual IQ.


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AlexWelshman
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16 Jun 2011, 10:07 am

Yes, I mainly meant accedemic; maybe practical as well, but I guess that could come under the autism couldn't it?



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16 Jun 2011, 10:10 am

littlelily613 wrote:
Not everyone with autism has an academic learning disability (I guess not being able to understand social cues, etc can be a type of learning disability...but I assume you are talking about academics?) Anyway, I have a few issues, but nothing that is serious enough to be considered a disability. I have an A average at school, with a 3.8 GPA. [b[Still, I have issues with understanding abstract math and scientific concepts. Sometimes, even though I was a very precocious reader, I do have trouble with some reading comprehension as well--depends on the information though.[/b]

Oh, and I have HFA, btw.


My daughter is an Aspie, normal intelligence, good grades until this year when the math concepts got much more complicated. She has a specified learning disability in writing (attributable to dyspraxia) and may also have dyscalculia - math LD. Some on the spectrum have LD's and some don't. Again - it's a spectrum... the only hard and fast rule is that there are very few hard and fast rules.

Those hilighted lines sound much like my daughters troubles - perhaps not as bad. And I can personally relate to the math difficulties. It may be beneficial to get those checked out - if you are in school and you have an LD they can make accomodations to help you succeed.