What is the main difference between high functioning autism and regular autism?

Hmmm: High functioning is exactly that. Able to achieve in school, get higher education, possibly be self sufficient, attain some social appropriateness. Regular autism is very variable. Severe autism is a tragedy. There are no known genomic or neurologic factors at this time that allow us to distinguish outcomes. Most important is love, behavioral intervention & acceptance.

Symptoms & IQ: There is no formal definition of "high functioning" with respect to autism, and the term tends to be used in two overlapping but distinct ways. One relates to iq, which often is impaired in patients with autism, so those with normal or high iq may be called high-functioning. The other use, still mostly limited those those with higher iq are individuals whose autism symptoms are lesss severe.

Degrees of autism: There is a spectrum of severity of autism. To say someone has high functioning autism means they have greater life skills than those with more severe autism. People with hi functioning autism can be very independent. Their problem is socializing.