Help please! is autism just a nice way to say retardation?

No: In fact, many patients with autism have above average intelligence (iq's greater than 100). Patients with retardation, by definition, have iq's less than 70.

No, but...: Autism and mental retardation (mr) are distinct diagnoses with clear definitions. However, many individuals have both; and studies have shown that, these days, many families prefer a diagnosis of autism to that of mr. Autism can have full range of intelligence of mentally retarded to genius level; mr means that the person is functioning at a much lower mental age than their actual age.

Absolutely not!!: Intelligence is very difficult to measure in even normal children. It is nearly impossible to measure in children with autism. If one uses iq to predict school performance, autistic children would score low. But if given special programs and appropriate testing, they can score very high. Good example is temple grandin. Read her books. You will never ask such a question again.

Not at all: Intellectual disability, the diagnosis that replaced mental retardation, is defined as having cognitive & social/adaptive abilities significantly below average. Autistic disorder is having qualitative impairments in social reciprocity & social communication + narrow, restricted areas of interests &/or repetitive non-functional movements.40-65% of children with ad also have intellectual disability.