According to most laypeople autism = mental retardation

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In this case he's using the term "laymen" to refer to people ignorant of autism.

Thats true for me too. In my case I did tell some people I had aspergers syndrome (my roommate and a couple other people). Since Im not all out mentally disabled and they've probably never met anyone with subtle disabilities(maybe except ADD), I get accused for things that I should "know better" about. I dont like getting the responce like, that its all my fault.

I saw this thing on the new where they were raising money for the intellectually challenged and I thought "isn't that nice they're trying to help out the close-minded."

alot of people who know me well have told me they are jealous of me and my abilities and have said they wish they could be me. I never know what to say in response to that.

I say: ask all those idiots who think we're high functioning or mildly ret*d to fix their own computers, and see who's the ret*d now.

I'll be using this joke in my stand up.

This is why I have a superiority complex.

Ugh... Yeah. Sometimes when my mom tells other adults that I am autistic, they talk to me like I'm a three year old. It makes me very angry.

They are totally wrong I talked to my mom about it before and she said they did a study about it, the evidence from that study says most are not although I believe none are.

This is absolutely why I have such a beef with being called autistic. I have been treated like I was mentally ret*d by many people for major part of my life, including not only laypeople but also "professionals" who should have known better. It obviously did not matter one bit to anyone that my IQ was over 100 while only those with an IQ below 70 are supposed to be considered mentally ret*d. I mean nobody cared how smart I was or what I was capable of doing because I was "autistic", which is taken to mean that I was incapable, "child-like", or mentally incompetent. No one would accept that I was every bit as capable as any "normal" person. I have been through the worst hell because of this way of thinking, having been placed in "special needs" settings not only while growing up but also for some years after I supposedly became an adult.

The most ridiculous part of all this was that I was not actually diagnosed as mentally ret*d. I have been called "highly functional" and "very bright", but in the end those working with me were extremely rigid and dogmatic about what had to be done with me simply based on the "autistic" label. It was bad enough that people just could not understand that there were other reasons for me not talking than a intellectual or developmental disability.

That's exactly the same kind of problem I have had. Most people just don't get that regardless what label I had, I was still quite capable. The only thing that ever stopped me from accomplishing more with my life was not anything wrong with me, but how people just had treat me based on my (mis)diagnosis of autism/autistic disorder/infantile autism.

Yes, I know how that feels since I've had the same thing happen to me. It did not stop even after I finally turned 18. There is not many things worse than someone treating you like you're a little kid when you are much older than that. Nobody deserves to be treated like that. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

erm....no
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&c ... kDW2EYdWWw

After seeing that girl profiled on ABC News who is autistic and was thought to be mentally ret*d until she learned to use the computer, and after seeing some of the people on this site who are extremely articulate and intelligent in their posts but can barely even speak or look at the camera in their videos, I am convinced that autistic people do not lack intelligence -- they lack the ability to communicate.

Unfortunately, the media portrays autistic people as being mentally challenged. Hopefully, that will change as more celebrities like Dan Ackroyd disclose their AS.

People do have a tendancy to equate inability to communicate with stupidity. We've all seen someone being treated like an idiot just because they don't speak English fluently. If Stephen Hawking didn't have machines that allow him to talk, people would probably think he was an idiot!

That's in relation to Autism (HFA/LFA), not the whole spectrum. It's thought now that only 1/3, if that, with Autism-proper, have an IQ in the mentally ret*d range. This doesn't take away from everyone else with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder who fit into the 70% figure on standardized tests. Autism and Asperger's make up about half of those with an ASD.

Of course, statistics will vary as they're usually taken from various sources, and diagnostic criteria are different from country to country (or even institution to institution within a country).

I don't see anything "wrong" with saying more than half of all individuals with an ASD have MR, as they seem to do; MR doesn't make someone "less" of a person, and frankly, speaking of someone's worth as an individual based on a single facet of strength is one of those social constructs that serves no purpose in an enlightened society (or any strength or weakness for that matter).

(There's a member here who has MR (LFA), and I often find that she's already posted what I was going to say before I finally get around to finding the words, and I'm in the "genius" range on a good day. Which I find amusing to no end.)

Regardless of the ASD debate (because I don't care for it);

OFT.

I work with children who currently (IQ can be unstable in children) achieve LD and (mild?) MR scores and it didn't occur me to think about that until now. Even right now, I don't know why and what to think of it.

Seeing how I score about 140 on standardised tests and don't know what that's good for (nor have most people realised that I score so high on what is commonly considered a part of intelligence) I think IQ doesn't mean a lot.

The kids all do very different despite their supposed common label/scores, I never did good in school despite my giftedness label/score and yet others with the same scores did good. And the normal kids are all across the field too.
That's odd if IQ is frequently interpreted as meaning everything about achievement and potential.

Well, I take everyone the way they're. Comes with being incapable of judging people enough.