Lower functioning autism

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The only realistic definition of "functioning" I've ever seen is to go by how much help a person needs to get through their day. But a lot of people don't use it that way, so it seems like a better idea to ignore the term "functioning" altogether and just say whatever you happen to mean by it. It's too vague a term to really have any use.

A lot of autistic people need more help than me, by that standard; I can live on my own (but can't work), and only need somebody with me if I'm in a new situation or to help with some things I really suck at, like dealing with government offices or figuring out a school schedule. So I guess that'd be "intermittent support" or maybe "limited support":

I've seen these used mostly by occupational therapists dealing with cognitive disability. They don't correspond directly to the mild/moderate/severe/profound MR divisions, and they can be used for other disabilities as well; but unfortunately, divisions like this--which are actually useful and mean something--are often ignored in favor of functioning labels, which really only stigmatize people.

The beauty of support levels is that they can change depending on circumstances, and usually do depending on how much you learn or whether a progressive disorder starts to cause more impairment. Plus, they don't say a thing about autonomy of decision-making; there are plenty of people who need "pervasive support" who still make all of their own decisions and just need help to carry them out.

I wish we used terms like those instead of functioning labels.

I agree those terms are better than functioning levels, but they still have a major flaw: They take more or less for granted the usual thing about how disabled people's unusual supports are in a totally different category than the supports most people need and get unquestioningly to the point that support for nondisabled people is not measured in there as a form of support. But acknowledging that would turn a lot of things on their head, because the difference between the usual level of support everyone gets, and "pervasive support", is pretty tiny. Which most people don't (or won't) acknowledge.

In that particular context I'd be fluctuating between intensive and pervasive. But of course in the real scheme of things, even for people needing "pervasive" support there are things they don't need help with, sometimes including things most people do need help with. Which is another way even that model falls apart. But it's better than functioning level.

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Last edited by Age1600 on 24 May 2010, 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

are you being serious? i remember your posting style and it is not like the post you just posted.

i took pains to read it and it made sense in a way, but i have never seen you type that way before.
maybe you have had some drinks. maybe i am not able to understand, and the confusion is in my own mind.
gee whiz.

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Last edited by Age1600 on 24 May 2010, 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I used to know a man with LFA at a day centre I worked at, he is verbal though and can answer/ask simple questions etc etc. But apart from that he's very quiet and would rather not talk, just hum and rock and wave this red lego piece in front of his eyes. He's quite funny because he would often burst out laughing or break into song, he always seemed happy. I used to play a "who wants to be a millionaire" DVD game with him and even though he didn't know the answers because he wasn't very bright he memorised most of them because he played that DVD game a lot.
He once worked out my day of birth (saturday) when I told him the date and the year, I was really impressed.

ok i am sorry. just relax. if you really are having trouble then i hope you are ok and you can sleep well and not be too unhappy about it.
i can decipher what you write. i just thought you were acting. i was wrong.

And that right there is what autistic people face whose skills fluctuate or who have more trouble with certain things as we get older. Never, ever make "acting" your first assumption in a situation like that. It can really stress us out at a time when extra stress is the last thing we need. And if you see anyone else making that assumption then speak out against it. Because not everyone is as understanding as you are about their own mistakes.

I used to get that when my ability to speak fluctuated and now that I have no useful speech (instead of just a little) I get it when my grammar or ability to type at all fluctuates, and also get it for having lost speech in the first place.

That was an awesome video....I saw that not long ago, and I agree. Why are people so shocked??? This is a prime example of what the OP and Willard is saying. It is the sensory issues that made this girl "appear" to be less of a person that the rest of us...or "low functioning". It all comes down to sensory processing disorder, those of us who have less sensory issues are Asperger's and the more dysfunctional our sensory processing is the more you are considered Autistic (high or low functioning).
My husband may have a chance to get in on some Autism research and I am pushing him toward this theory....I think it makes perfect sense. I also think its wonderful that technology has come to the point (thank the powers that be for Aspies!) where there is now a few ways that those who had no voice can make themselves heard.

Also to the poster who was talking about the boy with the helmet. Head banging is a pretty typical stim.....I even do it and my younger daughter likes to knock foreheads with me....to us its affection. I understand that when it is so hard that someone has to wear a helmet it can look disturbing but it is probably calming to him.

There's always more than just one simple reason for differences between autistic people.

It can be sensory processing, motor skills, lack of certain typical instincts, differences of personality, cognitive style and abilities, and many other things. One alone or several in combination. Not to mention the way people are treated throughout their lives, and the experiences they are exposed to.

I have known autistic people with average or above social awareness and fairly minimal sensory differences, but with such severe motor issues that they could not speak, had serious trouble learning to type, moved in highly unusual ways, and were considered "low functioning". But when it came to sensory and cognitive stuff they had an easier time than I did. It was just the motor issues preventing them from the more typical responses they'd otherwise have. (And by motor issues I don't mean coordination. I mean the ability to deliberately and consciously initiate, halt, combine, avoid repeating, etc., various simple actions. People with that kind of difficulty can still be incredibly well coordinated in other ways. It just depends where along the line you have motor trouble.)

Another person with the same sort of outward appearance (to most people anyway) might have very little motor trouble or sensory stuff but have very severe comprehension trouble.

And another one might have severe perceptual differences that prevent finding the body easily and therefore mimic the motor trouble, but also cause comprehension issues as well.

There are many different factors that make autistic people similar or different from each other. And very few of them divide us along the lines of AS/autism or HFA/MFA/LFA. Because those divisions themselves were made in a way that rarely reflect the genuine similarities or differences among us.

My parents force me to meet all kinds of people with autism.

So if I'm reading that right which I believe I am you can have a few problems here and there with sensory issues and fall into aspergers but if you have ever thing then you are more then like to be full on autistic?

Because I do know I have issues with getting in water in my ears and that there are some sounds that I really just can not take. There is also some light I don't like. But out side of that I don't think I have feel I have that many problems with sensory issues.

Its the level and the type of sensory processing you have. You may have difficulty in one area but others may be magnified and so on. Anbuend, issues with motor functioning in autistic people are usually related to vestibular dysfunction which is a sensory process. Im not implying that anything is "easy". Sensory processing is very complex and different in all of us.
There are also co morbid conditions such as physical problems, mental illness, brain injury, or down syndrome to name a few that compound things.

I'm not talking about the motor issues that result from vestibular problems. I am talking about difficulty initiating actions, combining actions, stopping actions, etc. Those things are not necessarily related to perception/sensory stuff at all. They are the kinds of motor issues people get from Parkinson's, catatonia, and strokes (yes those can all involve vestibular issues too but there's a difference between something being involved and everything being caused by that something), and have to do with various different areas of the brain governing intentional movement. There are motor things that can result from proprioceptive and vestibular issues, which can combine with this, but this is very different.

Differences between autistic people are not all sensory/perceptual. There's also cognition, movement, and personality. Yes, all of those things can and do interweave with each other. But they are not all down to sensory issues. I have the parkinsonlike motor problems and in my case they aren't tied in with vestibular issues (sometimes they interact interestingly with proprioceptive ones though). I know you don't think "sensory" issues are simple, but it's more than that. It's really that there are cognitive, personality, and motor issues that cause differences between autistic people without all just being the product of "sensory" (perceptual) issues. And those are equally important to be aware of when looking at differences between autistic people.

And that's besides the fact that in any single one of those categories (perceptual, cognitive, motor, personality) there is a huge range of different ways that people can be different. Including some that are related to overlap and others that aren't. For instance, lots of people on this site have simple hyper and hyposensitivities, but fewer have the thing I have where I cannot relate my perceptions to the usual categories without a lot of effort (I perceive patterns rather than categories and symbols, so I don't see "table", I see colors and textures etc., same in every sense -- I have to work really hard to use categories). And then of course there are perceptual issues that are neither of those things. And there is equal complexity among motor, cognitive, and personality-related stuff. So every single one is incredible complex, and that complexity interplays with the complexities in each of the others.

Ok I think I get that a bit better know.

Doesn't the support typical people get mesh fairly smoothly into the less-intense side of "intermittent" support, though? After all, average, non-disabled people will still need help in emergencies, like if they were to lose their homes to a tornado, or if they had to take care of two kids on one minimum-wage salary, or if they lost their spouse and were grieving. That's not too far from what intermittent support means. There's a spectrum of supports-needed that fades into the typical just like the autism spectrum does. The only thing that's different about them is that society isn't set up to provide them because they aren't needed by the majority; so we have to call "support needed by a minority of human beings" something just so we can be sure it exists, and to avoid leaving people without the help they need.