Parental Bias and Autism

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

Hi, what should I use instead as i was just diagnosed as having high functioning autism- but the lady said i would've been diagnosed with Aspergers if it was some time ago. I understand that aspergers has highly negative associations, so I refuse to use it, but I haven't heard of this "low" and "high" functioning thing before. (And I find that it sounds quite rude and dehumanising :( ) Would I refer to having lower support needs, or is there a middle ground between high and low support needs as I need support, which I don't get, but I don't need constant support if that makes sense. Please don't feel pressured into answering, tia- Riz :) 

Hi, what should I use instead as i was just diagnosed as having high functioning autism- but the lady said i would've been diagnosed with Aspergers if it was some time ago. I understand that aspergers has highly negative associations, so I refuse to use it, but I haven't heard of this "low" and "high" functioning thing before. (And I find that it sounds quite rude and dehumanising :( ) Would I refer to having lower support needs, or is there a middle ground between high and low support needs as I need support, which I don't get, but I don't need constant support if that makes sense. Please don't feel pressured into answering, tia- Riz :) 

You are so welcome!

Thank you so much once again, I really appreciate it :D 

Right so Aucademy is a great starting point:

https://aucademy.co.uk/

Aucademy is an excellent autistic led education platform about autistic experiences:

https://aucademy.co.uk/starting-your-autistic-discovery-journey-a-guide/

Aucademy YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/@aucademy6195?si=J-bxzMYDuz3x9Ofe

Neuroclastic - collection of blog and resources by autistics:

https://neuroclastic.com/

Autisticality - great, easy to understand infographics about autistic experience:

https://www.autisticality.co.uk/

There are loads more blogs, social media accounts and books by autistic people but this is a starting point.

Good luck on your autistic discovery journey!

Yes please, that would be awesome :D 

Thank you so much for welcoming me!! :D 

Hi again.

 I could give you some links to autistic led organisation that educate about autistic experience as this could help you understand your own experiences in more depth, but I am just conscious that I don’t want to give you too much information!

So just let me know if you would like that?! After all, we autistics are very good at info dumping!

Hi Riz
You are more than welcome!

We are here for you (including me!) throughout your autistic discovery and beyond!

I am so glad I could help you in such a meaningful way!

If you want any other advice, reassurance, or an opportunity to share autistic lived experiences, please just ask the community or start a discussion if you feel comfortable doing so.

Thank you so much for the help! I feel like I struggle a lot more than the diagnosis was suggesting. I've only been diagnosed since the 30th Oct so I am learning lots of new things, and I appreciate your advice. :D 

Hi, thank you so much for the help! I've only been diagnosed for a week, since the 30th Oct, so I am learning more than ever. Thank you so much for explaining in a understandable way! I appreciate it :D

Exactly!

Well the only person who really knows what it's like to be in our shoes is us individuals ourselves, so IMO self-advocacy is essential.

🐝 Bees 🐝 (they/them) Autism resources in bio #stoptheshock #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs said:

Don't take that "high functioning" to set unrealistic standards for yourself. Make sure you still ask for help or give yourself a break if you need it, because all it means to be assigned "high" or "low functioning" is as far as they (the shrinks) can tell you are autistic but do not also have a learning disability or low IQ and they suspect (guess) your support needs on average to be minimal, but it actually has very little to do with functioning in the reality of day to day life because they assess you based on how you act in a clinical environment

Hi Bees

Thanks for helping Riz to self-advocate!

Don't take that "high functioning" to set unrealistic standards for yourself. Make sure you still ask for help or give yourself a break if you need it, because all it means to be assigned "high" or "low functioning" is as far as they (the shrinks) can tell you are autistic but do not also have a learning disability or low IQ and they suspect (guess) your support needs on average to be minimal, but it actually has very little to do with functioning in the reality of day to day life because they assess you based on how you act in a clinical environment. Your real ability to function will alternate through phases depening on what is going on in your life, and unfortunately because they like to neatly boil things down to a label and not a description when they make a diagnosis that variable is not refelected adequately on a daft peice of paper.

To clarify inertia is defined as a difficulty starting, stopping or changing tasks.

I hope this helps Riz!

Riz said:

I understand that aspergers has highly negative associations, so I refuse to use it, but I haven't heard of this "low" and "high" functioning thing before. (And I find that it sounds quite rude and dehumanising

Hi Riz

I am glad you agree and you understand the history of this harmful language. I also agree that it can be confusing if your formal identification of being autistic uses these terms.

Riz said:

Would I refer to having lower support needs, or is there a middle ground between high and low support needs as I need support, which I don't get, but I don't need constant support if that makes sense. Please don't feel pressured into answering, tia- Riz :) 

Well, it depends. Obviously all humans needs and experiences are fluid, so trying to grade your support needs like this may not be helpful.

 What about if you used the term ‘support needs’ but then clarified what those needs by giving examples of situations you may need support with or find difficult?

For example, ‘I have several support needs, these include assistance using public transport as I can find these environments overwhelming’

Or ‘I need support with cooking and preparing meals as my brain is not suited to multi step tasks’

Or ‘I need support with administrative tasks as my brain is not suited to starting jobs that it finds boring/ I need support with administration as I experience experience inertia (difficulty starting, changing, stopping tasks).

 I hope this explanation and examples of potential support needs are helpful!

Thank you for being so considerate.