My 10-year-old son can change from an adorable, quirky little dude to an aggressive screamer in a second. He sinks so far, so fast, that I forget about his strengths and drown in his weaknesses. I wish I could make it stop. There’s a diagnosis that explains it: autism.
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Modifiers, such as “mild” or “high functioning,” and alternative labels, such as Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder — Not Otherwise Specified, were meant to capture the higher end of the wide range of presentations and outcomes among people who qualified for an autism diagnosis, and to combat the stereotype of autism as a tragedy.
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A child with an autism diagnosis, no matter how intelligent, charming, or funny, has challenges, and they aren’t mild. According to a recent article in The Economist, Britain’s National Autistic Society survey found that only 12 percent of so-called high-functioning people with autism in that country have full-time employment. As reported in Science, another study found that autistic adults without a learning disability were nine times more likely than control subjects to die by suicide.
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With the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th edition in 2013, professionals made the spectrum concept official. It’s now autism spectrum disorder for everyone who qualifies for a diagnosis. No more modifiers or alternative labels. And that’s as it should be.
Read full, original post: I stopped calling autistic people ‘high-functioning’ because of my son. Here’s why.
