There are many myths about autism. Some of them are completely ridiculous, but for others, it’s easy to understand where the confusion lies. In 2013, the DSM-5 (the book that houses psychiatric diagnoses) redefined autism as a spectrum disorder, including Asperger’s Syndrome and all other subtypes into the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) umbrella. So it is understandable why people think that there is some kind of autism gradient ranging from neurodivergent children and adults who need very little to no help navigating daily life (sometimes called “high functioning”) to neurodivergent children and adults that will need special care throughout their lives (sometimes called “low functioning”) but this actually isn’t the case.
Though now defined as a “spectrum disorder,” autism is actually a whole host of different disorders that have two things in common: impaired social communication or interaction and restricted or repetitive movements. That’s why autism can vary so much from one person to the next. That’s why it doesn’t actually make sense to categorize someone as “high functioning,” or “low functioning.”
Would you consider an apple to be “high functioning” and a coconut “low functioning?” But they are both fruit! Both come from a tree. But you can see how different they are just by looking at them. And though both are considered fruit and sometimes a pie ingredient, they really have very little in common.
And because autism is a set of disorders and not really a spectrum as we have been led to believe, we can no more easily compare one autistic person to another because, aside from the two diagnosing criteria, they may have nothing else in common. Even autistic people in the same family may be starkly different.
Take the family of Leah Behrens, for example (a well-known autism mom on Instagram) two of her three kiddos have autism, and yet it looks extremely different for both of them. On the one hand, Leah’s daughter is quiet and socially withdrawn. She has selective mutism and does not speak in school, though is quite articulate at home. Leah’s son has difficulty with both receptive and expressive speech and is doted on for being able to say small words like “tickle” and “hot dog” (as he well should be, considering the amount of effort he puts into speaking; he’s an amazing kid–they both are). They are brother and sister, both with autism, and yet we cannot compare the two to one another because, though they both meet the diagnostic criteria, it is for different reasons.
For that reason– and others– I urge people to stop using terms like “high functioning” and “low functioning” to describe behaviors associated with autism or the people who have it. We don’t need more categories. This world is filled to the brim with categories. What we need is for people to accept neurodivergents where we are, the way we are, and for who we are. I hope you will hold onto that today, seeing as it is the official Autism Acceptance Day.
