Author's personal copy Superior nonverbal intelligence in children with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome Fei Chen a, *, Pascale Planche b , Eric Lemonnier a a Service de Pe ´dopsychiatrie, CHU de Brest, Hoˆpital de Bohars, BP17, 29820 Bohars, France b De ´partement de Psychologie, Faculte ´ des Lettres et Sciences Sociales, Universite ´ de Bretagne Occidentale, 29200 Brest, France 1. Introduction Autism is characterized by impairments in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities (APA, 1994). Mental retardation (MR) is associated to more than half of individuals with autism, although the reported rate of MR in autism varies in different studies. Chakrabarti and Fombonne (2001, 2005) reported a rate of normal intellectual functioning only up to 33% of their subjects with autistic disorder while this rate rose up to 92% in PDD-NOS and 100% in Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Higher IQ in children with autism has been found to predict a better prognosis (Ben-Itzchak & Zachor, 2007), so an appropriate estimation of the intellectual level is important for treatment consideration (e.g., choosing a more appropriate intervention method). Recently, the reliability of standard IQ assessment in people with autistic disorder was challenged since the most widely used IQ batteries (Wechsler Intelligence Scales) require competence in language which is well-known to be a core impairment in autism (but not for AS people) thus could have underestimated the real intellectual level of individuals with autism (Dawson, Gernsbacher, Mottron, & Soulie ` res, 2007). These authors found that the score of a nonverbal psychometric test – the Raven’s Test – ‘‘could be on average, 30 percentile points, and in some cases more than 70 percentile points, higher than scores on the Wechsler scales of intelligence’’. However, the degree of such ‘‘underestimation’’ still needs to be well studied and defined. For example, Bo ¨ lte, Dziobek, and Poustka’ study (2009) confirmed the above-mentioned discrepancy but to a much lesser degree than reported in Dawson et al.’s study and only for their autistic participants with a Wechsler IQ < 85. Thus, the scores in nonverbal psychometric tests as Raven’s seem to be comparables with scores in Wechsler Intelligence Scales, at least in relatively high-functioning Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 4 (2010) 457–460 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 28 October 2009 Accepted 23 November 2009 Keywords: High-functioning autism (HFA) Asperger’s syndrome (AS) Nonverbal intelligence Raven’s Test ABSTRACT Some early studies showed discordance in cognitive strengths and weaknesses in individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger’s syndrome (AS). The present study administered the French version of Colored Raven’s Progressive Matrices in 14 children with HFA/AS and in 26 chronological age matched peers with typical development. We found a trend of superior nonverbal performance in Raven’s Test in our HFA/AS participants compared to controls, and this ‘‘superiority’’ achieved statistical significance in the HFA/AS subgroup with a FIQ  90. Superior fluid intelligence seemed to exist in individuals both with HFA and with AS. A complementary use of both the Raven’s Test and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales seems to be important for exploring the domain- specific as well as multidimensional profiles in individuals with autism. ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Present address: Avenue du Mont d’Or 53, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 76 285 3329. E-mail address: pierre.fei.chen@gmail.com (F. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders Journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/RASD/default.asp 1750-9467/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2009.11.002