Published on 12, July, 2020
I prefer to use autism or ASD because I believe high and low-functioning autism creates a false perception of The Autism Spectrum. To me and I imagine many others, low-functioning and high-functioning create the image of a horizontal line with one side saying "most autistic" and the other side saying "least autistic", especially since I hear people say "end of the spectrum."
I see The Autism Spectrum as more of a circle divided with each section representing a difficulty, with the individual in the centre having a variation of difficulties with differing levels of severity to one another. Like someone described as low-functioning may be able to walk through shops with no oversensitivity while someone described as high-functioning can have a higher level of severity in sensory processing that it's too hard and not be able to.
Do you think we should avoid the use of high and low-functioning as they're not clinical terms anyway?
yes what you say is correct but there is usually a swing into periods of low level functioning. The problem is when u are labelled high functioning it can be forgotten that u are still autistic and may be having really bad periods where you are low functioning.
but in the end it is a single word way of saying "I can survive",,,,,,
My understanding is that psychologists label you as HIGH, if you can perform basic functions, on your own, such as cooking, travelling by public transport, planning journeys, pass educational exams.
no not really ---- i would be amazed if someone asked me what level i am. it would mean they know what autism is
HIGH or LOW?
No harm in using the terms, it's nowhere near perfect. It is a way of trying to bring order and understanding to a complete mess.
I can see the issue that it can change maybe a system that would take into account the changes year to year would be a better model for services to get a better insight on you ? In my experiences services never read the paper work already so more will just be a waste of time.
yes its just a handy quick way of saying where you are sorta and shouldn't be used rigidly. I am level 1.5 BTW
she also said (paraphased) "you cant use autism as an accuse"
The problem is that functionality differs over time and by context. I am verbal, but have no useful relationship with time. I was late learning to tell the time, and if someone were to ask me the time on the street I would pretend not to have a watch. because my ability to tell the time is purely visual and I cannot easily translate the visual input from a watch-face into words. However, a non-verbal person might be wonderfully adept with time. The same goes for mental arithmetic, my general ability at maths is fairly good, but I have near zero abilities at mental arithmetic - I can never work out how much change is right, at least not without a long thought process. Again someone who is non-verbal might have amazing abilities in mental arithmetic.
autism was thought to of been child schizophrenia in the beginning allot as changed
Well there is a low and high functioning aspect to autism/Aspergers why would we avoid that term if it helps people understand characteristics about certain people ?
If you code autistic traits as colours in a wheel of colour, and colours are just perceptions of different wavelengths of visible light, then people would just have more or less of each wavelength (or band of wavelengths) compared to each other.
So does every person have a unique pattern of colours? Maybe some people have much more of one colour than the other colours, and some other people don't have any of a particular colour?
That reminds me of a quote by Temple Grandin;
"What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool?
You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done."
I find that easy to believe.
Business Development Manager vs too useless to do a real job.
I can see why some would object to these terms, but I don't mind them. Not because I like them, but simply because I'm naturally reluctant to subvert or manipulate language as a response to political correctness. And for me, this is one of those instances. Replacing them with terms such as Level 1, 2 and 3 is precisely the kind of convoluted, corporate-managerial speak that results from this impulse to sanitise language. You are now a 'Level' of autistic, yet the word level denotes a position on a scale of extent, or quality. So, great, high and low have been removed and replaced by numbers... Hygiene Operative vs Cleaner; Retail Sales Associate vs shop assistant; Business Development Manager vs too useless to do a real job.
every colour, ah no wonder white is so privileged then for they are everything all at once and thus get the bonuses of every other colour combined
That would be every colour, like Saruman. You don't breed orcs as a hobby?
oh im white, because i wanna cash in that privilege.
Well, I would argue that the autistic spectrum is really a 'colour wheel' - and I think I'm probably magenta with some lime-green!
so agree