Autism Spectrum Disorder

Do you know that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Amadeus Mozart, word-famous scientists and artists, are autistic?

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a disability in behavioural and social development. A common falsehood is that autism is a mental disorder or illness, which is not true. There have been theories about underlying connections between autism and intelligence for years. Some people with autism can excel in certain areas, from mathematics, technology, art to music (Crespi, 2016). For example, one of our participants R. has a lot of knowledge about movies. You can say a year number, and he can tell you many movies that were produced in that year. Another example is our participant J., who can solve a 1000-piece puzzle in a very short time (1-2 hours) whereas other people at his age may take 2-3 days to finish it.

However, it is worth noting that people with autism can be smart, but autism itself does not make people smarter. Autism also does not guarantee intelligence, though many people with ASD do well in academics, in the workforce, and in IQ test.

Autism And High-Intelligence: The Correlation & Cause

In a 2016 study, autism was found to be a disorder that exhibits intelligence. Other studies indicate that there exists a correlation between genetics surrounding an autistic person and mental standing.

Here are observed correlations shared between people with a high IQ and autism:

1. Interest in physics, chemistry, and mathematics

2. Great attention to detail and planning

3. Intimacy with people shares many physical similarities with them.

More studies into the correlations revealed that people with variances in genetics associated with autism maintained good scores on tests more than the average person with no symptoms did.