How many people on the spectrum are also mentally ret*d?

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Obviously this would not be applied to almost anyone here but I do know that the percentage of Autistics with MR is indeed sizeable.

Excluding the higher end of autism how many people on the spectrum have a mental disability? I have heard that we are actually the minority and that the largest majority does indeed have a mental impairment.

It used to be thought that most Spectrumites had an intellectual disability.

This was probably true under pre-1990s autism. Pre-1990's autism was Kanner Autism, plus Childhood Degenerative Disorder.

It is not true today.

Within the space of about five years, it went from (in essence) "more than half of people with autism will never acquire useful speech" to stating that, perhaps, a third of people with autism will never acquire useful speech.

Also: sorry for being a pain in the butt--but "mentally ret*d" is really seen as being an unacceptable "diagnosis." People now have "intellectual challenges." Just like "Mongolism" has been replaced by Down Syndrome.

I have aspergers, which is not really relevant to this conversation, but my friend has a son who's about to turn 5 years old and he is at an as yet undetermined location on the autism spectrum. He does not have what could be called "useful speech". He has the vocabulary and sentence construction ability of perhaps a 2 year old. But he is definitely not mentally ret*d. His reasoning, especially spacially, is very advanced for his age. He constructs highly elaborate marble runs, models, train track layouts. Does very complex puzzles meant for adults and puts them together lightning fast, even if it's the first time ever. He's a very skilled manipulator of his father. He's extremely aware of his environment. He just has very poor speech. He didn't even begin to speak until he was almost four years old.

I wonder if Aspergers/Autism is genetic as well. I have aspergers, I am 99% sure my father also has it, though he refuses to attempt any kind of diagnosis, and I think my friend with the autistic son also is on the spectrum. I go to Autism support groups in my area, and I know someone who has aspergers, and his wife has it, and their daughter has it. Coincidence? Or genetic transmission?

I'm going off on two tangents here- but anyways, I don't personally believe that 90% of the people, if not more, out there with ASD are mentally ret*d. I think they are so very disconnected from our world and drawn into themselves that they appear to be mentally ret*d. If they were able to integrate into society and communicate properly, and if they had the desire to do so, I believe they would be as capable as the next person.

It's true: before computers, many people considered "low-functioning" (with or without an intellectual disability) had great difficulty communicating with others.

With the advent of computers and "augmentative and alternative communication devices," many of these "low-functioning people" finally found a way to emerge from their autism-induced isolation.

Studies "think" as much as 3/4 of people on the autism spectrum also have an intellectual disability ( a term that replaced mentally r$#@!%$#d). But I think that number is A LOT LOWER because many people with an autism spectrum even if they are moderate to low functioning have normal to above normal intelligence just as people with Aspergers and HFA.It's just that the moderate functioning to low functioning autistic people can't communicate it. Their low language and recognition in the world hides thier high intelligence. But if CAREFULLY given attention to these things, they can proubably communicate with the world.
There are two examples of how people that are initally labled as intellectual disabled actually prove that they are not as if they can communicate normally. For example, a Japanese man with low functioning autism, who actually is quite famous in his homeland, communicates effectively with he Japanese version of a talker and probably has the same IQ as an aspie : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/a ... SHIDA.html
Another example, is that on Yahoo answers, someone with Angelman Syndrome, a rare but servere and low functioning autistic-like condition, actually communicated pretty well on the Computer Keyboard when asking whether if he should qualify for a disability:https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140424145806AA5rBdl
And Angelman Syndrome is kind of in the same misunderstood functioning//IQ pattern as autism but the spectrum is much narrower. So someone with that condition might be misinterpeted as having a servere or profound intellectual disability in terms of functioning when in actuality he has the same IQ as someone with MID.

I would say 25% to 50% have an IQ below 70.

Many people with Kanner autism have "normal" or even "above" normal intelligence.

Actually, when I was younger I was much like mistersprinkles' friend's kid except that I had what is called Regressive Autism. This is because I develped nuerotypically from birth to the age of 15 months. I actually spoke my first words at the age of 12 months and immediatley spoke a little better babbly. I also made eye contact with my family and my mom would say I was a sweet cute little toodler. But at the age of 15 months, that all changed. I lost all the speech and social skills I once had, had a change in personality, and did bizzare repetitive behaviors at the same time. But thanks to full force immediate early intervention, I turned out high functioning only a few years later. I did not speak again until I was 4.
There are disorders related to autism that are usually as bad or worse than low functioning autism. And some of those cases actually had low IQs. Take Childhood Disintegrative Disorder for example, it is kind of what I had during my regression except that it happens later (CDD strikes nuerotypically developing patients in their Early Childhood ages 3-5 years old vs 15 months-3 years for Regressive Autism) and is 100 times wrose (the patient devevlops epilepsy, loses bowel and bladder control, and IQ actually decreases. None of these happened to me even in my wrost regressive days). Someone with Childhood Disintegrative Disorder is nearly identical to someone with low functioning autsitic disorder in the same way that Aspergers Syndrome is nearly identical to high functioning autistic disorder.
While that may be true, someone with low functioning autism might actually have an IQ of 190 while someone with Aspergers Syndrome would have an IQ of 125.
The part where it gets tricky and more obvious in viewing that LFA has normal to above normal IQ is in the case where an ASD is comorbid with Down Syndrome, which almost always comes with mild to moderate intellectual disability. If I were to say if any ASD were to come with an intellectual disability at all, it would be certian cases of PDD-NOS.

Excuse me but... I prefer the term intellectually-disabled, and so does one of my friends who is non-autistic but intellectually-challenged as well. I do have a low IQ, which often considered for me to be borderline intellectual functioning. Though, I think it varies because I have a hard time with daily living skills like cooking and cleaning. I also have issues with understanding the concept of time at the same time.