Published on 12, July, 2020
We often get posts on the form asking for advice with autistic children. And I can't help but notice the requests overwhelmingly relate to low functioning autistic children. As someone who is quite high functioning and had a very disrupted and turbulent childhood I can guarantee you it's not because high functioning autistic children don't have just as many issues. Nore is it that high functioning autistic children are particularly rare. We recently had a discussion on this point in another thread and figures I dug up indicated around 40%+ of autistic children being diagnosed these days are of average or above average intelligence.
So the question I'm asking is this. Why don't those parents come looking for help? Is it because the main stream schooling and support systems are so much better at supporting high functioning children? I doubt it. Is it because they tend to think of their child’s behaviour as 'naughty' not 'autistic?' Is it maybe they don't accept or agree with their child’s diagnosis? What do you think it is?
More to the point:
Edit ps: For the simplification of this entire discussion and to avoid a long drawnout arguments over semantics. Instead of high functioning we shall say high IQ meaning an IQ of 85+ and instead of low functioning we will say low IQ meaning an IQ less than 85. As measured on a standard clinically approved IQ test.
There is no such thing as ‘low functioning’, please do not use functioning labels when speaking about fellow members of our autistic community, especially our younger neurokin. It’s dehumanising and inaccurate.
People harmfully and wrongly misconstrue some autistic people as ‘low functioning’ if they have co-occurring needs such as apraxia, learning disability or epilepsy etc. No human deserves to be defined and identified using functioning labels, our worth is not defined by how much we can contribute to society.
Please use the term ‘support needs’ instead and list what specific needs the autistic person you are talking about has.
Please read about the harm that ensues from using functioning labels to describe our autistic community:
https://www.autisticality.co.uk/functioning-labels
Ausomely Autistic said:People harmfully and wrongly misconstrue some autistic people as βlow functioningβ if they have co-occurring needs such as apraxia, learning disability or epilepsy etc. No human deserves to be defined and identified using functioning labels, our worth is not defined by how much we can contribute to society.
I agree with this point. But I wanna add that I find functioning is only a helpful IF it is conceptually recognised as a fluid scale (how it is used medically at current as a fixed scale is when it is misguided, assumptive, and harmful) because there are better and worse days even if you don't have a debilitating co-occuring condition. Which is actually true for neurotypicals too just we seem to experience it magnified (the NT doctors are too keen to point out the ways we are deficient and errant from neurotypicals they never focus on our human similarities or strengths of difference).I do find it an interesting point though even if you remove the issue of functioning labels because as Peter says those %40+ approx are just thse who are diagnosed, it doesn't include those who mask or get missed from diagnosis for whatever reason, the invisible undetected autistic population is no doubt massive s the majority of autistic people would seem to be so-called "highter functioning", and yet we all have our struggles. I think my own parents expected me to just "tough it out" as a kid and teenager because I was "okay" academically, not disruptive in class, and bottled my anxiety and depression hidden from parents and teachers until I'd have explosive meltdowns and be labelled dramatic.I think it's time we dropped functioning levels and instead recognised the fluidity of how much support we need individually. Because when my mental health is good and my work load is manageable I do okay now, I haven't had a meltdown in 8 months, I just need someone to pick up a little slack in a few daily household tasks and to remind me about up-comming stuff. When I was depressed though I couldn't even dress myself let alone go to work and averaged about 3 meltdowns a week. I'm the same autistic person I've always been so saying I have one level of functioning is utter rubbish, I'd like to throw whoever invented static functioning lables and set ASD "levels" in the flipping bin.
Martin said:The problem is that human beings vary hugely in abilities and highlighting this with labels is, at the very least, concise and can be helpful in some circumstances. Better labelling in the case of so many institutions which aim support at 'autistics and people with learning difficulties' would be helpful, as it conflates two sets of people with a rather limited overlap and widely varying needs.
Unfortunately Martin because they are seen as static I'd never trust a peice of paper or another person with my diagnosis, level, or functioning label to accurately explain my support needs. I'd honestly rather just try and mask long enough to get in the door places and then drop what I need on people in my own time as and when I need it. I don't trust any neurotypical to treat me how I need nor deserve as far as I can throw them, ignorance is their default setting: they are not in our shoes, not in our world and only ever "know" anything about it 2nd and 3rd hand.
I'll tell you what else I find "interesting" is that the active members are actually autistic people looking for community, and the drop-in members appear to be non-autistic people looking for information that the content of their posts would imply they are seeking from qualified therapists, teachers, and the like. And from the way they phrase their posts most are clearly expecting answers "how to deal with child regressing" from a neurotypical perspective, tbh I don't wish ill to them, but I don't think well of them either because they clearly think of us as problems to be managed rather than people with problems to be managed, or people to stick around and get to know no matter how welcome we try to make them.It's actually starkly obvious when a new NAS-bunch-of-numbers is autistic or neurotypical themself because of the type of post they drop here. The NT tourists aren't looking for community here like the actually autistic people are, and that is symptomatic of the wider societal problem: NT's don't want to know us as people. They still veiw us as puzzles to be solved.And tbh I'm largely done with trying to talk to them if the reply would take too long because I don't think they value me as an autistic person they just view me and my input as a tool to help "fix" their "broken" autistic kid. If I tell them anything it's only for the benefit of the child.
π Bees π (they/them) Autism resources in bio #stoptheshock #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs said:TBH I think my kid is aces, he's his own kind of specialist and will get on just fine if folk would only let him be himself, my only real concern is that he's going to be as misunderstood and mistreated by NT society as I have been.
That’s quite worrying, but I am sure you will be great at helping your child advocate for themselves!
π Bees π (they/them) Autism resources in bio #stoptheshock #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs said:If nothing else it is at least why I don't talk about my kid here like that, I don't ask for advice here because I already know, and when I have mentioned him here it's never been in terms of defecits.
TBH I think my kid is aces, he's his own kind of specialist and will get on just fine if folk would only let him be himself, my only real concern is that he's going to be as misunderstood and mistreated by NT society as I have been.