How do We Talk About Autism?

Another area that the language is changing around is how to describe the “severity” of autism. With the change to a spectrum disorder, the language shifted to attributing a “functional level” instead of distinct named disorders. In this system, an individual that is non-verbal may be labelled as “level 3” or “low functioning”, while an individual that is capable of holding a job and living independently is labelled as “level 1” or “high functioning”. This type of language is considered problematic for many reasons.

First, it is highly reductive of the individual to only having worth as a measure of traditional productivity. Second, it can obscure the variability within each autistic experience – even a self-sufficient person may have frequent meltdowns and nonverbal periods, and a completely non-verbal autist may be fantastic writer; the former may not receive any assistance due to perceived functional level, while the latter may not be given opportunities for self-expression and contribution when people assume an overall level based on one factor.

These labels are being replaced with a description of support needs, such as low or high support needs. This is preferred because it lacks the judgment inherent in the value of function, and because it is open for variability – while a person may be “low support needs”, that does not mean that person has no support needs, which is often assumed with functioning labels.