High, Low, Moderate.

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Okay, we all have our ideas of high and low functioning autism. There's got to be something in the middle...so, what would moderately functioning autism be?

Yea!! ! That's what I'm talking about!

Moderately functioning would just mean a person is good in some areas, and not so good in others. And probably every human being on the face of this Earth has patchy skills in one way or another, just we on the Spectrum probably have more patchy skills than average.

PS Educational and medical institutions seem to "need" to define a person has high- or low-functioning.

I saw this website a while ago, kinda what I based my thoughts on. levels of autism link

I learned there is a moderate autism from that website link also. In public, I often have limited verbal skills...it just goes away.

Severity levels are defined on the DSM-5, but the severity chart is exclusively clinically important.

not quite high-functioning. but better than moderate.

High Functioning Autism: Intelligence is at least in the normal range. ( minimum IQ score of 90 or high 80s) They are capable of someday living on their own, and do not have any intellectual delays.


Medium Functioning Autism: Intelligence is below average but not in the ret*d range. (IQ between 71 - 85) Most are capable of speaking and only need some support. Some can eventually live on their own. They are capable of holding basic jobs.


Low Functioning Autism: IQ is in the ret*d range. They may not be able to speak, and they need a lot of support, and cannot live on their own.

Whatever the source, it's a list of rather incorrect generalizations and confuses function for severity. You can be deemed high functioning and be unable to live independently. You can be deemed low functioning and be able to function independently to a greater degree than is described there.

i was just discussing this very thing with someone, hmmmm, who was it?

I think I am high functioning because I hold a job and support myself (thank goodness), and most people (I've only told a few) don't believe I have autism, they think I'm just weird. Maybe that should be the definition of high function, when you hear people say it's not Asperger's, you're just weird, if you would just try harder...

I think to an extent these labels are pointless though because although I hold a job and excel at some aspects of it, I totally suck at other aspects and my personal life is messed up because I have trouble doing all the things I'm supposed to be doing. Taxes anyone? Money in general? Tending to clothes, complicated hygiene issues, the list goes on.

The other thing is, I'm somewhat insulated in my job, but if I get laid off, I don't know what will happen to me. My profession is a dying art, there aren't a lot more jobs doing it out there. So then am I suddenly low functioning?

I am high-functioning.

some would say that I must be high-functioning by dint of my time in the military, but what they don't know is that by all rights I should've been chaptered out while still in training, but I basically hid in plain sight and stumbled from one situation to another and avoided getting into serious trouble. I kept my nose clean and did what I was told, which took the attention off of my ineptitude- the lions' share of my fellow GIs were constantly getting into trouble one way or another which kept the brass busy dealing with them and not me. my IQ is far higher than the moderate range but that doesn't translate into a high-functioning kind of life so far. high functioning people don't live in hoarders-style tin cans out in the woods.

My verbal and intellectual skills are deemed high functioning and my IQ got me labeled with AS. I consider myself between high functioning and moderate given some of my difficulties functioning (forgetting to eat, forgetting to due essential tasks, having trouble keeping a schedule on my own, etc.) and my sensory processing issues (will shut down in dangerous situations). But that's mainly based on my own experiences.