#tw: functioning labels

Excerpt from full article by Autistic human rights activist Amy Sequenzia, here: http://ollibean.com/2013/09/26/problems-functioning-labels/

TW Ableism, functioning labels.

“There are more problems with functioning labels and they start at home. If parents or family members refer to autistic children as “low-functioning” because doctors and other “experts” labeled the children as “severe”, expectations for those children will be always low.

My question to parents is: wouldn’t you prefer that your children be treated with respect and have equal opportunities in life? Because YOU set the tone for how your children will be treated. I say “no” to pity and “yes” to presumption of competence.And there should not be a need to apologize for what might be seen as a flaw in a child’s way of being. Instead of accepting the word of some “experts” that there is an urgent need to “modify” behaviors, work with your children to explore their abilities and improve what really matters to each one of them (and being indistinguishable from peers matters only to the ones who don’t matter: the “experts”)

Note: one needs to know what is autism and what is not. Co-occurrences like GI problems and seizures are not autism and need to be treated (but not with dubious “medicine”, like bleach enemas and the such)If parents and family members refer to autistic children as “high-functioning”, this can create a big obstacle if those children ever need accommodations, especially when they grow up. They might be dismissed as just quirky or lazy, when in reality they need some accommodations to succeed. Think Temple Grandin not being allowed to use her squeeze machine.