Do You Think High and Low-functioning Should Be Used?

Not sure who really decides ?

The level is a suggestion of the level of support needed giving to you by the professional who diagnosed you and its being abandoned because like functional labels it was being used wrongly to deny individuals access to support. 

An autistic individuals ability can often deteriorate or improve depending on major life events. Level of ability never stays consistent and ability can be impacted by relationships and major life event like employment, education or age appropriate life milestones like moving in out of childhood home. 

The level system is also useless to the significant group of autistic individuals that actively hide and mask as professionals will never gauge the difficulties an individual is truly having in a few diagnostic assessment sessions. 

The level is also pointless if the individual has multiple comorbid condition like dyslexia and ADHD.  

Daniel, my written diagnosis states 'High Functioning' and I can assure you that I was assessed by a group of accredited professionals here in the UK.

Ben

iv no preference either, it dont bother me if others use high and low functioning to be honest. autism is hard to describe, especially to others that have no knowledge of it, some people dont even understand the description 'neurological condition', most are just trying to find a quick easy description i think.

I forgot another point. Functioning labels can also create a sense of division in the autistic community, when in reality all autistic people have shared experiences (despite the diversity of the population).

I don’t think the terms high functioning and low functioning should be used because they can cause offence and are only accurate descriptors of how autistic people present to neurotypicals (mask). 

Also because autism is a form of neurodivergence, it affects everything and is contextual. This means that supports needs are very variable and change all the time, so the term autistic should just be used. Functioning labels are offensive, too simplistic and are only easy for neurotypical people to use.. Autism is not a linear spectrum.

Probably not. That's my answer. I don't think anyone has come up with a justification for making the distinction. From reading about this, I've come to see these labels are misleading because they do not take into account the variety of different autistics experiences.

That taps into the old discussion, "Do you prefer 'person with autism' or 'autistic person'?". Apparently, the first concentrates on the person and the second concentrates on the autism. Personally I have no preference but some people get very heated about it. 

It depends where you're based, some areas (and countries) officially used the term until the diagnostics manual changed. Even now it's still used occasionally. A woman in my local group has it in black and white in her recently received assessment report "ASD, Level 1, high functioning". It's wrong but it happens. And you don't 'have' to correct them, you 'want' to correct them. Lol! I'm the same! 

Ben,

High and low-functioning were not terms made by the professionals, people looking and judging came up with the terms and they've become very popular, I see parents of autistic children using them, people in online autism communities using them, I get tired of having to correct them.

i think using the general discription 'autism' is right, my son has a learning disability also, so i say hes autistic and has dyslexia, for me autism is him and the dyslexia is his struggle. same would be for someone who is non verbal, adhd etc

I thought they'd re-named it Levels One, Two and Thee, which I find much more acceptable.

'Low Functioning' is a brutal term.

Ben

There's a comedian called Hannah Gadsby who was diagnosed as an adult and in one of her TV specials she says, "I have what is termed as 'High functioning autism'. That's a TERRIBLE name for what I have because it implies that I function *highly*. I do not!". And I agree with her. I function. But I can't say I function highly. You're right though,  it's to do with the support needed. Low functioning: needs support, possibly lots of it. High functioning: needs less support, probably offered none! Why they don't just change it to high support or low support, I don't know. 

In my experience, the range is used to make decisions on the level of support offered.      High functioning = tough luck.

Naturally, the rating is done by an NT based on other NT's observations on that particular day while performing certain tasks.

As you say, just because I'm classed as high functioning, it just means I'm better at hiding the anxiety and stress I'm feeling.

It might also mean I'm dumb for hiding that stress.

its mainly because its a spectrum, and i guess for inclusions sake maybe? to make it so the ones that appear more functioning dont get excluded entirely and abandoned. and probably because they keep merging new stuff into it all the time like aspergers and so on, hell at one point autism was supposedly on the schizophrenic spectrum instead just like aspergers now being on the autistic spectrum. so things change and definitions switch, it will likely again change in the future or be a part of another condition or add more conditions to its sphere or whatever.