On using “What about the low functioning” to shut us up

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The ‘Bogeyman’ of ‘Low Functioning’

From “AStrangerInGodzone” blog written by a over 50 New Zealand woman
She is openly self diagnosed so if that disqualifies her opinion for you, your loss. It is also ironic as the blog entry is about people disqualifying the validity of opinions.

“It seems like every time an autistic advocate pops their head above the parapet and objects to some maltreatment of autistics, especially autistic children, somebody comes back with “but-what-about-the-low-functioning”, dragging in things like poop-smearing, meltdowns and head-banging. “You’re not like these kids, you don’t understand!”, they exclaim, again and again. As if we’ve never heard of such things, or done them ourselves, and as if ‘those’ autistics are a different species.

The ‘low-functioning’, in effect, have become the modern bogeyman. The stereotype that gets trotted out, time after time, cast as “the ones who really do need a cure”, and dragged out as defense against those of us who oppose things like bleach enemas, turpentine drinks, ABA, GcMAF, chelation, hyperbaric chambers and the like as false ‘cures’ for autism.

But I say casting them as this bogeyman is nonsense, a chimera, a false construct.

Why? Because –

1) It fosters a division that isn’t actually there. Functioning levels are actually meaningless. There aren’t any autistics, even adults, who are completely ‘high functioning’. Many of us were like ‘those kids’ when we were young - and some of us still are. But regardless of our apparent ‘functioning’, we can still totally support the neurodiversity perspective.

(There’s also a hidden threat in this - any of us, if we lapse in our ‘high functioning’, could also be subjected to these treatments – and sometimes have been. So basically, the underlying message is “let us do what we want to these kids, or we’ll do it to you too”.)

2) It presumes that the ‘treatments’ will actually help them. I’ve written about ABA before, it’s compliance-training, not a ‘cure’. And then there are the bleach enemas and so on. How anyone can think that these are a good idea to do to anyone is beyond me. How they think it’s going to ‘cure’ a neurological condition is even more perplexing. Yet people do so, causing huge physical and psychological harm to the children. Then they credit any advances the child makes to these bizarre and dangerous ‘treatments’, as though autistic children never grow and mature on their own.

3) It presumes that ‘extreme behaviours’ happen ‘just because’ of autism. We know this to be not true, but even when we try to explain the possible reasons for the behaviours, and offer advice and support, we’re often ignored or derided. Meanwhile, the autistic child/ren in question are indeed suffering - from lack of understanding, lack of supports, sensory overload, social stress, bullying, harsh ‘treatments’, falsely low assumptions of their intelligence, rejection, even institutionalisation and electric shocks… the list is a long one.

4) It presumes that the ‘low functioning’ are somehow different - to other autistics, and indeed other human beings. It casts them as virtually sub-human. They can no longer ignore the humanity of ‘high functioning’ autistics who speak up (though some still try), and so they focus on this group instead. But not only are functioning levels nonsense, as I’ve already said, I’ve read quite a bit of the writings of the ‘severely’ autistic, and I’ve never found anything in these that indicates their brains are radically different to other autistics. The differences are a matter of degree, not of kind.

5) It assumes it’s okay to treat even the ‘different’ like this. This is the crux of it really. Ultimately, it’s not even about whether the ‘low functioning’ really are separate/different from others, or whether the treatments prevent the ‘undesirable’ behaviour. It’s that it’s NOT OKAY to treat ANYONE like this. Ever.

It’s not okay to treat people like dogs, and browbeat, coerce, and manipulate them into submission. It’s not okay to shove bleach up their bottoms or down their throats, force them to drink turps or seawater, inject dodgy blood products into them, starve them with severe diets, give them electric shocks or subject them to chelation that leeches vital elements out of their bodies. It’s not okay to put handwash in a kid’s mouth for stimming, or forcibly hold their hands down till they stop flapping, or anything else that forces them to suppress their very way of being in order to be ‘acceptable’.

None of this is okay. And saying that it is okay because someone is a ‘low functioning’ autistic, is a breach of the human rights of ALL autistics. If even one of us is subject to these things, we are all at risk. And we know it. Even if we don’t think about it consciously, deep down we know it.

This is why we protest.

This is why we say ‘no more’, and ‘nothing about us without us’.

This is not just about preventing abuse, but about demanding our human rights.

So enough with the bogeyman. Enough with trying to scare us and parents of autistic children, enough with trying to silence us, enough with a false separation between ‘them’ and ‘us’, enough with casting the very children who most desperately need acceptance and understanding and support as some kind of demon or sub-human.

ENOUGH.

NOW.”



Those NT’s who disqualify the validity of our opinions because we are high functioning/ have Aspergers/do not have “real autism” miss the irony of what they are doing completely.

While this blog entry seems directed at NT’s there are a few neurodiversity advocates who will do things like criticize ABA or “ curabees” and then turn around and say they might be ok for the low functioning. Being abused by ableists does not make ok to be a aspie supremacist.

Are all attempts to help those who would clinically be described as 'low functioning' really this barbaric? Surely there must be those who do their best to improve the lives of such people by benign means.

Not all therapies for the profoundly autistic are barbaric and not all NT’s use functioning labels as a divide and conquer strategy. The blog I reposted is not aimed at them.

These barbaric things do exist and ABA is considered the “gold standard” treatment in America. I am not going to reargue ABA in this thread but if you leave WP and go into many comment sections about ABA especially a blog by an autistic person criticizing ABA you will invariable see the anti ABA opinions described as invalid because the critic has the ability to write. And in any argument about the Neurodivesity movement in WP and elsewhere will invariably go in the direction of claiming the ND movement is made up of elitist high functioning, aspie, and people who are not autistic who claim they are.

Self diagnosed people have many negative stereotypes associated with them and those pejoritives made me briefly hesitant about reposting her blog which means I am not immune from the chilling effect of dividing autistic people up. But what is most important is that the blogger said in a more coherent way what I have been opining about here on WP, the bloggers neurology should not enter into it.

Excellent.

I have no doubt at all the StrangerInGodzone is on the AS spectrum. Another blog I like, commenting on the same issue very adeptly:

https://annsautism.blogspot.co.nz/2017/ ... nough.html

In my case, I tend to fall between low & high function autistic as, I actually exhibit traits of each regardless of what my professional diagnosis indicates;therefore, autistic people can show qualities of both or none in various levels.

As with something like schizophrenia we all differ to the degree we function in different areas. My greatest problem is with social interaction . As a nurse said "" Due to some of his personality traits he finds it hard to develop or sustain social relationships" . In terms of activities of daily living it's variable . I handle my finances quite well but struggle with hygiene and keeping my flat clean and tidy. Luckily I now live near my stepdaughter who helps with these things.
Some days we do cope better than others. That is so true. I am not intellectually disabled but have a probable learning difficulty. Some days I can think well and other days I can struggle to organise my thoughts . Anything requiring organising and planning is an uphill task. As is anything requiring multi/sequential steps.

good point just because some of the autistic community has a larger problem navigating the world or behaving in the socially appropriate way doesn't mean that they should be sub humanized or be subjected to nonsensical or potentially fatal treatments to strip them of there identity I do believe that some autistics need more help than others and about there supposedly more severe troubleing behavior we have all done socially unexceptible stuff to one degree or another before.

Read the blog a couple of times and am confused...Could somebody explain what the author of the blog is trying to say? what is their precise point?

Shut whom up? and why?

Is this aimed at parents of low functioning kids who are active in autism advocacy?

The blog calls low functioning a "bogey" but then proceeds to say the label is meaningless but I get the impression they are concerned about the needs of folks on the higher end of the "proverbial" spectrum being ignored?

What happened to "we are all on the same side"?

It is directed at those who look down on "low-functioning" people or use their existence to discredit the value of neurodiversity.

If that's whom its aimed at then the author should be more careful and choose another title for their blog

High Function & Low Function are simply variables within the overall realm but, to demonize one is to demonize the other,which does not sit well with me at all.

To me it was aimed at people who say autistic advocates opinions are invalid because they are too high functioning to understand their child and severly autistic children in general.

Me too. The intention is to sneer at AS people who function well and independently as "not really autistic".

It is as silly to me as saying that the highly intelligent are not really learners because they don't require support like the people with learning disabilities.

The sneering is mainly parent driven, many of whom I would guess have never spoken to the "high functioning" people they target. It's possibly driven mostly by parental resentment, I surmise, though perhaps it's more political than that, as curebies are also drivers of this, as they sneer at neurodiversity too yet rarely seem to understand it very well.

As a parent I have become better educated about this debate and find there is ignorance in parents of LFA kids but also on the part of some HFA folks who attack us parents. The parents who are ignorant or who are political might be better served focusing on their own kids needs than projecting their anxiety on the wider community


Perhaps a handful of parents are resentful but most of get a bit desperate and frustrated at the lack of viable options for our kids and the prospect of what happens when we run out of money or die leaving our kids to fend for themselves. Opening up channels of dialogue that also includes parents of HFA kids can help understand we all go through some stage of problem

Respectful dialogue is always preferable to uninformed prejudice, I agree, and the lack of support is a real issue. The thing is that the "resenters" tend to seek support from other "resenters" as it confirms their prejudice. I can understand this, though it seems rarely to produce anything constructive for them - other than venting. Venting has its place, but when used as attacking divisive rhetoric it becomes destructive, and God knows what the children of the venters absorb from it about their worth as human beings. The attacks on the "high functioning" are driven at the deepest level by envy and resentment and a lot of misunderstanding about the challenges that confront all members of the spectrum. Autism Speaks is a bit more civilised now than it was under the Wrights, though the seeds that the Wrights sowed are still germinating and turning into new weeds.

(PS Nothing I wrote on this thread was intended as personal commentary on you, Cyberdad, just in case you thought so, I admire the balanced view you take and your obvious loving care for your daughter's well being).