Autism “Levels” Are Still Functioning Labels
Both are inaccurate and useless at best, harmful at worst
External and internalized ableism
The Autistic community has explained (and explained some more) how and why functioning labels are unhelpful, inaccurate, and often harmful.
Many just ignore us, but those who do listen seem to understand the words, but not the concept. Instead of using labels like “high functioning” and “low functioning”, we moved on to phrases like support needs and autism levels.
They’re the same damn thing.
Why are we so insistent on differentiating ourselves (or our children) from others who share our neurotype?
Let’s be honest with ourselves here: it’s ableism, plain and simple.
My son was was originally diagnosed with ADHD in 2019, and a few months later, I was given the same diagnosis. Since then, others have suggested he and I might be Autistic as well.
I’ve been researching autism and ADHD as special interests for the past five years and I’ve come to the same conclusion.
If you go back in my writing, you’ll find that many of my early articles refer to my son as twice exceptional, which is accurate: he is gifted as well as…
