Is there a such thing as high-functioning down syndrome?

There’s a huge variance with Down syndrome. A friend’s daughter was born with it so they got pretty active in the community. I ended up helping at some events and learned a lot.

In talking to some people with DS, if they didn’t have the physical tells and issues speaking, you probably wouldn’t think anything was different about them. I don’t know how they’d rank in terms of IQ, 85 might be high, but it doesn’t seem out of the question.

Others aren’t able to communicate with anyone who isn’t extremely in tune with them and they have physical issues that require constant care.

One young man remembered my name, what we’d talked about, and updated me on some questions I’d asked him before. It had been a few months in between, so he definitely had the capacity, but he was also kind of one of the stars. He was what you’d consider very high functioning I think, and that got him to the point where you probably wouldn’t suspect anything on the internet. He had a job, and was probably going to be able to live on his own with very limited help.

I don’t know of anyone who has what you’d consider a “high” IQ that has DS. I think that’s precluded by some of the physical difference caused by the genetic differences. But there are some lucky people who are very determined to learn all they can.

And a lot of really nice people that smile, laugh, and dance enough to make you wonder what we’re all complaining about.

Life Goes On was a TV show that has a main character who had Down Syndrome that was played by an actor with Down Syndrome, Chris Burke. He was what I always had called high functioning, but it’s not that I know that as a technically correct term. I don’t know if there are certain medical parameters to be able to use the term. People with Down’s Syndrome fall on a spectrum of IQ just like “normal” people.

I don’t know his IQ, but actor Chris Burke was an actor with Downs back in the late 1980s until the early 2000s. He was the lead in the TV show Life Goes On which required him to learn a lot of dialog. He also had a supporting role on Touched By An Angel & ER & was in several movies & did numerous PSA’s with Tracey Ullman as an advocate for Downs. All of this required a lot ability. In my eyes, he was high functioning. I think he is retired now & he’s in his 50’s.

IQs don’t impress me. I was married to a man with a very high IQ yet he’d forget to do some of the every day basic things. He got dressed to go to work one morning. He had on his shirt, tie, & suit coat; but, had forgotten to put on his slacks. At least he did have his underwear on. Good thing that I didn’t have to go to work that day!!!

Keep in mind something like 35% of the population has an IQ of 85–100. So, it must be around 13% have IQ’s that are 50/55–85. I’m sort of estimating, I just know the bell curve Middle was 100 from what I remember. So, daily we all probably interact with a lot of people around the 80–85 IQ mark, and they don’t all have some sort of obvious genetic mutations or extra genetic material of a chromosome.

Yes.