Published on 12, July, 2020
Hey Everyone,
I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on functioning labels I see a lot of videos and posts on various social media pages. That are of the view that are a bad thing that segregates people within the autistic community. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about it, I'm not sure I care enough to pass judgment on the topic. I do understand the purpose of them because there are autistic that can live independently with minimal to no help from all the way up to people that need full time round the clock care and everyone in-between.
I would never judge or treat any autistic person differently if they were for example nonverbal vs someone like myself who would be considered high functioning. I guess I just don't necessarily understand why there seems to be a of distaste towards functioning labels.
In a world of limited resources, labels are used to triage support availability.
I'm very high functioning in most circumstances but very low functioning in others. In 'normal' life, those low functioning periods don't crop up very often so I would likely receive no support whatsoever and just left to get on with it.
As we're dealing with a spectrum disorder, those at the lower end are going to need a lot more support and for a lot longer so they exist on the system's radar for a lot longer and are more likely to get the support they need..
I have no problem with all that - it's just frustrating that if I *need* support, the hoops I'd have to jump through and the waiting lists I'd be put on and the delays and cancellations I'd be faced with actually means that I'm totally on my own.
I know what you mean by this plastic, our son is considered 'high functioning' he is in mainstream school and yes compared to a lot of other people on the spectrum like you he is both 'high functioning' and 'low functioning' with certain aspects of his life, but with the problems that he does have there is no real support and you are just left to your own devices!