Most autistic people are high functioning

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auntblabby
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04 Mar 2016, 4:40 pm

Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.

give yourself more time.

No, Literally I'm PDD-NOS so I'm neither High nor Low Functioning more Medium Functioning. :)

then you're peerless :wtg:



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04 Mar 2016, 6:26 pm

B19 wrote:
The problem with the "my child is the worst real kind parents" is their determination to apply a dichotomy to what is actually a spectrum. They do this deliberately, it seems, to elevate their statements, get attention, and try to legitimise their spurious claim to be privileged authorities on who the 'real' autistic people are (their children). There's something really wrong with this.

Someone with a missing limb has a significant impairment, but you don't get parents of quadriplegiac or paraplegiac offspring, for example, claiming that their disabled children/adult children with multiple paralysed limbs that cause greater impairment are the only genuinely limb impairment. So what is going on re autism?

I think some of it is that the divisor parents are egged on to some extent by Autism Speaks and other groups of the same ilk, who make up the "autism is a tragedy" gang, and that is their ideological position, so they resent capable people on the spectrum who give the lie to their demonising propaganda.

There are other issues with the whole dichotomy of high/low functioning, as we know. Most people (including NTs, including those very parents) are high functioning in some areas of life and not in others. I am low functioning in sports (you better believe it, my sports ability IQ would be zero) and high functioning in others.

As the decades have gone by in my life my distaste for dichotomous thinking has greatly increased. As we are all humans, the whole human race on a spectrum from 'extreme autistic" to "not at all". Dividing people into "low and high" is allied to a lot of the dehumanisation stuff, and drives a lot of the more extreme claims about the worthlessness and cost of autism generally, the 'tragedy' of being a parent of a child on the spectrum.

I am a parent of a child and grandchildren on the spectrum and on the spectrum and would rather cut off my tongue than bleat about their challenges on the internet from the perspective of a martyr-parent/grandparent. They have been the dominant source of joy in my life. The dehumanisers are much louder of voice though than they are great in number, and whether more practical support for their genuine challenges would make a difference, I wonder. If that is what is driving their chorus then it is more understandable, though their dialogue is not typically framed like that. They come across more as child-haters than parents asking for more help to parent well.

The vicious stridency of those who appear to be child-hater-parents does seem to me to somehow echo the strident hatred of the voices of the vindictive ex-spouses who wildly claim all autists are psychopaths, both groups make wild and hateful generalisations because autistic people exist.


I'm so glad you explained this! I really appreciate that you love and care for your children and grandchildren rather than throw pity parties online. Autistic people need love too. They're also humans, and demonizing them will only make things worse.



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04 Mar 2016, 7:10 pm

Repetitive behaviors (especially speech), severe sensory dyspraxia plus other things, makes me near moderate-functioning.


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04 Mar 2016, 8:08 pm

auntblabby wrote:
Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
Pieplup wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
to me, a "high-functioning" AS subject is one who can for the most part pass for [successfully emulate under most circumstances] NT. I have not come close to meeting that standard except for very short periods of time in very lax circumstances, of which occasions I have been described as "presenting well."

Then I would be low function for I don't pass.

give yourself more time.

No, Literally I'm PDD-NOS so I'm neither High nor Low Functioning more Medium Functioning. :)

then you're peerless :wtg:
I Like being peerless, I can walk 3 million miles and meet no one like me. :wtg:


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auntblabby
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04 Mar 2016, 8:30 pm

^^^that's the spirit :bounce:



Ettina
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04 Mar 2016, 9:13 pm

GodzillaWoman wrote:
B19 wrote:
As the decades have gone by in my life my distaste for dichotomous thinking has greatly increased. As we are all humans, the whole human race on a spectrum from 'extreme autistic" to "not at all". Dividing people into "low and high" is allied to a lot of the dehumanisation stuff, and drives a lot of the more extreme claims about the worthlessness and cost of autism generally, the 'tragedy' of being a parent of a child on the spectrum.

THANK you... As I have been seeking some way to improve my life in the past few months since my diagnosis, I've repeatedly run up against an attitude from mental health professionals: when I ask them what therapies can help me cope better with the continual stressors in my life, I usually hear something along the lines of: if I have a job and a spouse and am self-supporting, what more do I need? Well, yeah, except that I frequently got into trouble at work, I was frequently having serious conflict with my spouse, my commute to work is such a sensory nightmare that I sometimes contemplate throwing myself in front of a train, and we often barely make ends meet. I felt like I was just dragging myself from day to day, dreading each new day, never having the energy to improve my lot. The diagnosis was the first bit of hope I'd had in years. When people throw "high-functioning" labels at me, it feels more like an excuse to refuse me any help. Any failure to succeed was hinted at just being my laziness and poor planning. In reality, I sometimes work 60-80 hour weeks because I can't focus or plan things properly, or are so disorganized I have to fix things on my own time.


I can't remember who originally said this, but my favourite quote about functioning labels is 'low functioning means your strengths get ignored, high functioning means your weaknesses get ignored'.

cyberdad wrote:
Ettina wrote:
Clearly, those commenters are wrong. Descriptions of high functioning autism are actually a far better representation of the majority of autistic people than descriptions of low functioning autism. Despite the scare tactics used by many 'awareness' campaigns, most autistic people have an average IQ. The severe, low functioning end is actually a minority among autistic children.


And what exactly is your point in bringing this up? are you worried you are being lumped with more severe forms of autism by NT people you interact with?


No, I'm sick of people saying that high functioning people shouldn't have visibly or a say in the autism community because 'real autism' is low functioning.

germanium wrote:
Some "low functioning autistics" have actually been found to have fairly high IQ's, some in the gifted range. They have severe sensory issues, verbal & motor dispraxi. Carly is a perfect example. She is gifted but very disabled with verbal & motor dispraxi.


True. However, before she got appropriate AAC, Carly received a much lower score on IQ tests. So I suspect many of the 'IQ less than 70' kids in the studies I reviewed could have been similarly underestimated. Which, though unfortunate for the kids, does happen to make IQ score a better predictor of functioning level.

Oh, and regarding the FC debate - Carly doesn't use FC. She types independently.



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04 Mar 2016, 9:49 pm

I dont' know if Carly's typing is independent, as the only video I have seen of her typing was in the presence of another person performing actions as she is typing slowly letter by letter.

I used to believe these types of stories more, but after researching more about them and the general topics of FC/RPM/ideomotor, and learning some personal stories of LFA people and their parents being duped by these magical communicator people, I am highly skeptical of them now.


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cyberdad
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05 Mar 2016, 4:43 am

Ettina wrote:
No, I'm sick of people saying that high functioning people shouldn't have visibly or a say in the autism community because 'real autism' is low functioning.


There is no autism community as such. There is a small but vocal group of very high functioning individuals who publicly advocate on behalf of other people with autism and there is an online community of Aspies whom communicate online but don't actually meet each other in person and finally parents of children with autism who joins groups or associations of who's members are parents in the same situation as them. People with low functioning autism have no say in anything in public life and struggling to get their voices heard...let alone feeling like they are connected to people like yourself



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05 Mar 2016, 4:51 am

btbnnyr wrote:
I dont' know if Carly's typing is independent, as the only video I have seen of her typing was in the presence of another person performing actions as she is typing slowly letter by letter.

I used to believe these types of stories more, but after researching more about them and the general topics of FC/RPM/ideomotor, and learning some personal stories of LFA people and their parents being duped by these magical communicator people, I am highly skeptical of them now.


It appears from the videos I have seen of her is that she is typing independently in that they are her own thoughts but she seemed to have been subjected to ABA & was being encouraged to continue typing using techniques used in ABA to encourage her continued cooperation. I have seen this in other videos of people who advocated ABA as a means to get cooperation of severely autistic children. This does not indicate to me that she is not typing independently but needs very strong encouragement in order to continue with her thoughts. Since she was likely subjected to & responded to ABA in the past they continued to use it after she began communicating as it is likely the only form of encouragement that she has known.



germanium
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05 Mar 2016, 4:58 am

cyberdad wrote:
Ettina wrote:
No, I'm sick of people saying that high functioning people shouldn't have visibly or a say in the autism community because 'real autism' is low functioning.


There is no autism community as such. There is a small but vocal group of very high functioning individuals who publicly advocate on behalf of other people with autism and there is an online community of Aspies whom communicate online but don't actually meet each other in person and finally parents of children with autism who joins groups or associations of who's members are parents in the same situation as them. People with low functioning autism have no say in anything in public life and struggling to get their voices heard...let alone feeling like they are connected to people like yourself


In my local area I go to a meetup for asperger & other people with social issues called Square Pegs & Other Social Misfits. So you see there are gatherings fore ASD people. These are indeed physical face to face meetups.



auntblabby
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05 Mar 2016, 5:04 am

^^^hiya Germanium, hope to see ya tomorrow at the meetup :)



Ettina
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05 Mar 2016, 6:42 am

cyberdad wrote:
finally parents of children with autism who joins groups or associations of who's members are parents in the same situation as them. People with low functioning autism have no say in anything in public life and struggling to get their voices heard...let alone feeling like they are connected to people like yourself


This is the community I was referring to. The people who speak 'for' low functioning autistic people. Although I would say there is also the 'self-advocates who use AAC' community, and I tend not to have much of a problem with that group.



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05 Mar 2016, 8:01 am

germanium wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Ettina wrote:
No, I'm sick of people saying that high functioning people shouldn't have visibly or a say in the autism community because 'real autism' is low functioning.


There is no autism community as such. There is a small but vocal group of very high functioning individuals who publicly advocate on behalf of other people with autism and there is an online community of Aspies whom communicate online but don't actually meet each other in person and finally parents of children with autism who joins groups or associations of who's members are parents in the same situation as them. People with low functioning autism have no say in anything in public life and struggling to get their voices heard...let alone feeling like they are connected to people like yourself


In my local area I go to a meetup for asperger & other people with social issues called Square Pegs & Other Social Misfits. So you see there are gatherings fore ASD people. These are indeed physical face to face meetups.



In my local area people from a wide range of backgrounds and with a wide range of connections to autism meet up. This includes high functioning individuals, low functioning individuals and their carers / parents, and parents of children on the spectrum. It is a real community. In fact it was the mum of an autistic boy who recognised the signs of autism in me. I also suspect that my autism helped me relate to and understand her and her son which helped us all become friends. I don't think it's true that people with low functioning autism are always denied a voice in the community becuase that's just not true around here. Another friend of mine has an autistic daughter who is low functioning and we went on holiday together, her and her daughter and me and my son. As we worked out what we wanted to do each day everyone had a say, including my friend's daughter. It did take time and patience to underdstand what she wanted but it was really worth it because she was so happy to be part of everything and to have her say, even if some of that was via a computer thingie she uses.


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05 Mar 2016, 1:15 pm

LFA is just autism with mental retardation, and HFA is just autism without mental retardation.
A small percentage of LFA may not be as mentally ret*d as they are measured to be due to severe dyspraxia, but they are not representative of most LFA.


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05 Mar 2016, 5:48 pm

The general populace responds to the the high-functioning and low-functioning labels by thinking that high-functioning is effectively the same as not having autism. That's not the fault of the labels themselves though. I think without the labels, people would still see how different the relatively less-impaired folks are and decide that means they are "normal."

I think part of it is the usual mess with invisible disabilities. People think if you don't LOOK disabled than you must not be disabled. Normally everyone with autism would be in the same boat as people with conditions like ADHD, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, depression, etc.: You LOOK fine, so you must be fine, you just need to try harder! But many severely low-functioning kids have enough trouble to "look" disabled to others.

Another part of it is backlash against the "autism is not a disability" crowd. If someone has a child with autism who is clearly disabled, and they see someone else say, "I have autism and I'm not disabled," a response of "Even if you have autism, your situation is very different from my child's" is pretty reasonable!


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05 Mar 2016, 5:50 pm

germanium wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Ettina wrote:
No, I'm sick of people saying that high functioning people shouldn't have visibly or a say in the autism community because 'real autism' is low functioning.


There is no autism community as such. There is a small but vocal group of very high functioning individuals who publicly advocate on behalf of other people with autism and there is an online community of Aspies whom communicate online but don't actually meet each other in person and finally parents of children with autism who joins groups or associations of who's members are parents in the same situation as them. People with low functioning autism have no say in anything in public life and struggling to get their voices heard...let alone feeling like they are connected to people like yourself


In my local area I go to a meetup for asperger & other people with social issues called Square Pegs & Other Social Misfits. So you see there are gatherings fore ASD people. These are indeed physical face to face meetups.

Glad to hear it :)