12th
“High-functioning”
John Elder Robison has turned advocacy for people with autism into one of his Aspergian special interests. He kicks ass in this interview with Steve Silberman from last May:
One of the things that troubles people about the use of labels like “low-functioning” and “high-functioning” is that people will call a five-year-old kid who can’t talk “low-functioning,” yet a kid who has language skills, like me, but doesn’t have any friends, is described as “high-functioning.” First of all, of those two children, the so-called high-functioning kid is the one who is at material risk for suicide by the time he’s 16. Most people would not call a dead kid highly functional.
I know two families with (non-spectrum) teenage kids who have dropped out of high school because of their inability to adapt themselves into their societally expected roles. The prospect of my “high-functioning” second grader struggling as they have weighs heavy on my heart sometimes.
