Intelligence patterns among children with high-functioning autism, phenylketonuria, and childhood head injury

High-functioning children with autistic-spectrum disorder show the typical pattern of lower Comprehension relative to their own scores on Block Design . This profile is shared, almost exactly, by age- and IQ-matched children w ith poorer control PKU. Quite distinct profiles are shown by children with better control PKU, who show no difference between Block Design and Compreh ension, and by children with head injury involving frontal lobe contusion, who show slightly better Comprehension than Block Design. The data bear on several questions: the relation between Comprehension deficits and language functions measured by Vocabulary; the limits of the advantages conveyed by higher IQ to autistic individuals; whether impaired Comprehension in autis m indexes persisting symptoms and/or impairments on theory of mind tasks; t he possibility that dopamine deficiency is common to autism and poorer cont rol PKU; and the need for future research aimed at understanding the relati ons among neurodevelopmental disorders.