What is the IQ that seperates HFA from LFA?

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What is the IQ that seperates HFA from LFA? Also, can you be Low Functioning Autistic & still be Verbal? Also, is there such a thing as mid functioning autism? I don't hear much information about that.

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Last edited by Janissy on 16 Jun 2011, 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Low vs high functioning aren't official designations. There is no IQ cutoff between the two. I use the terms to describe how much the autisic's symptoms interfere with living life or how obvious the symptoms are. I personally believe the measurement of IQ doesn't play a part. I have a step-nephew who has severe autism and mental retardation and the MR is listed as a seperate diagnosis. My therapist considers me mid-functioning and I typically do well in academic settings.

it is not really pure intelligence that is responsible for "depth of autistic encompassment".

the depth of disconnection with the outside world is a result of neurological "damage" (with respect to mirror neurons (i believe)), and not due to intellectual incapacity.

intellectual capacity is certainly a contributing factor to "functionality", but it is eventually overruled by progressively deeper levels of autistic impairment.

imagine a person who is considered a celebrated genius (like Mozart) lived their life 230.000 years ago. there was no musical chromatic scale, and there were no instruments to play. there was no precedent to base his musical ideas on, so he would very likely never have thought in a musical way for all his life.

maybe he would scrounge for berries like his tribal counterparts do, and if we could pluck him out of that existence at the age of say 40 (when he is expected to be at his smartest), and tested his intelligence, it may very likely yield a very substandard result.


autism and intelligence are not related.

IQ can not easily be measured in many people with autism. The only restriction on IQ is for Aspergers (people with Aspergers have average or above average IQ). For autism, you can have LFA and HFA people that are really intelligent--it might not be easy to see how intelligent someone with LFA truly is because they are more difficult to communicate. If they are given the tools to somehow communicate, people can see how intelligent and eloquent many of them truly are. Unfortunately many LFA are not given the necessary tools. (One example would be Carly Fleischmann--who is currently writing a book despite being totally nonverbal. She communicates to others with her computer and is amazingly intelligent despite having been written off as ret*d. Her IQ will likely never be accurately known, but she is still an intelligent young woman regardless of what number they get for her.) HFA do not have IQ restrictions either. To be high-functioning, you have some form of communication--some are better at that than others--and have at least some self-help skills. Some live completely independent lives, get careers, get married, and have children. Others can do for themselves to a certain extent, but can never live alone. Both of these groups of people are still HFA. Anyway, so yeah, both people with HFA or LFA can be mentally ret*d or not. Low-functioning does not equal ret*d and HFA does not equal intelligent.

Oh aye, I have 2 agree that IQ's are not good to describe autistic people. You could even be intelegent & have a low IQ, but just score lower because you also have 'Learning Difficulties', but I thought even though it wasn't a very good way of doing it; that was how people measure your functioning. Anyway, can you be LFA & still be Verbal?

No, I am pretty sure that communication and basic self-help skills are what divide LFA from HFA.

And I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure all verbal people (here, by verbal, I mean someone who at least sometimes uses communicative phrases rather than ONLY echolalia) are put into HFA category.

IQ measures only whether you're stupid enough to believe human intelligence can be represented by a number.

Yes. Almost all people with autism learn to speak. However, many autistic people who can speak are still labeled "LFA" because their doctor perceives them as severely disabled.

As others here have said, HFA and LFA are not clinical terms and have no medical meaning. There is only one autism diagnosis.

If you wanted to use functioning labels, the Global Assessment of Functioning (<--link) scale is probably the only reasonable way to do it. In general, a GAF of 30 or below means you probably cannot live on your own without daily help, and it would be reasonable to call this group "low-functioning". However, it is very common for GAFs to vary widely throughout a person's lifetime. My lowest score would probably be a 10, and the highest probably a 60. So, like most autistic people, I am high-functioning sometimes and low-functioning other times. Most of the time, my GAF can be evaluated to be in the 40s or 50s; I can live alone with some help, though not daily help. (The average NT scores 70-90 on a 100-point scale, and will dip into the 40s during extreme stress, such as when grieving a loved one.)

Applying HFA/LFA to cases of autism globally does not make much sense because skills and circumstances will vary throughout the lifetime.

A person can have any degree of autism and still speak.

Functioning labels are diagnostically useless.

I can't see that I'd be described as being high functioning anything and have been told I'm in the moderate autism range, and I have some degree of verbosity, though it varies.

And PLEASE! IQ does not dictate functioning level! I assume you just don't know so I won't get too upset, but please get this idea out of your head. My IQ hits the test ceiling and I have limited verbal ability and need staff all day, everyday.

I was told by a few autism specialist that I communicated too well verbally & that I seemed too intelligent to have anything on the autism spectrum. I was told that sense I never was refereed for an IQ test by anyone & that I had high-school diploma; my intelligence was to high to be autistic.

What an odd stereotype. Autism and developmental delay are associated of course, but only about as closely as autism and ADHD, or autism and epilepsy. If you didn't have either of those, they wouldn't rule it out; why should being good at school have anything to do with it?

But I totally understand; they had this idea that if you were good at something, you couldn't possibly be disabled. That's not true, of course; but I was subjected to the exact same thing--they assumed that because I made good grades, I must be too smart to be having the problems I was having, and therefore I must be willfully rebelling. I was actually diagnosed "oppositional defiant" for "refusing" to do things I wouldn't be able to do for as many as ten years yet, some of which I still can't do...

I had lots of problems with school but I had dyslexia accommodations because I was diagnosed with that & ADHD sense I started school. only rezone I passed certain classes was because those grades were curved. I got the impression that the specialist believe autism is like a higher form of mental retardation. I was diagnosed with about 4 personality disorders & lots of other things instead of AS

To receive a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, you have to have a measured IQ of at least 70, the cutoff for mental retardation. The phrase "average to above-average IQ" is misleading; it would be better stated as "below-average or greater along the normal continuum."

One of the leading autism researchers, Simon Baron-Cohen, lists the IQ cutoffs for autism as the following:

High-Functioning: 85 or greater
Mid-Functioning: 55-84
Low-Functioning: 54 or lower

Mid-functioning autism is a term that is seldom used, especially as a diagnostic term.

You can't be too intelegent to be autistic. Autistic people are often very intelegent. Aparently most of the people studying at oxford are autistic.