Do you guys actually care about this?

I don't care what people call me, but I can't speak on behalf of anyone else.

Personally, I don't think there's any such thing as high or low functioning. Back at school they were autistic individuals who struggled to understand rules to games and didn't communicate verbally (that's what it appeared to be).

I chose to let them play with me even though they weren't speaking and couldn't understand rules, what came to my mind is if they can understand my language maybe it's possible they're choosing not to speak, not they are unable.

I played with them day after day treating them as any other person, after so long they began to understand the rules and occasionally say a word or two and their verbal communication gradually increased. 

I've listened to parents share stories about their autistic children and the same applied, at one point they were not speaking at all and were totally resistant to any form of communication, but once the parents of these children stepped outside of the traditional medical route and looked for their own way their children became entirely engaged with other people.

The medical model is what I see to be the problem, the medical model treats the person as the condition, those who become engaged were treat as people and not a condition. Just like how I treat the students at school as people who simply have not learnt to understand rules yet because no one tried teaching them.

So concerning functioning, I see it has nothing to do with the autistic person, but is all to do with how the autistic person is treat and viewed.

Yes, that's a fantastic way of describing these 'functioning' labels, Daniel.

Yes, that's a fantastic way of describing these 'functioning' labels, Daniel.