Should those with severe autism have their own diagnosis. Thread 2

It would immediately convey the situation my friend is in 'mu son is profoundly autistic' there everyone knows the extra struggles and the level of care and barriers that causes. It also means me saying I have an autistic child who attends mainstream school conveyancing a different picture.

Yes I think it should. For 2 reasons. I think the level of support required by those with around autism is very different to the level of support my son who has higher functioning autism requires. He's verbal, academically capable when well supported etc. however in neurotypical spaces he definitely stands out as different. He couldn't cope with a very minor issue today and ended up whimpering under a table in a venue over it. He's not a toddler, he's too big to easily haul out from under a table. Yet he couldn't, genuinely couldn't, get himself under control to get himself out.

I feel like neither are served by having a single diagnosis, I feel like a fraud if I state my son is autistic because I feel I need to be clear he can talk. Communicate, access mainstream school etc. because it feels fraudulent that someone may think I'm the position of a friend with a non verbal 5 yr old who cannot follow 2 step instructions and will likely never gain independence. I'm tired, she's exhausted, I'm often running on 1 frayed nerve her last never has snapped entirely. I CAN send my son to a small number of childcare options that can support his needs, she has no childcare options out with respite services and an sen school.

That said I also have a neurotypical child, she's 4, parenting her is an actual wall in the park, she has wee issues here and there but largely she sleeps, eats, can manage her emotions age appropriately, if something causes an upset she can be brought back to baseline fairly predictably, she hasn't been hospitalised regularly for seizures, she can be left to do a craft activity while I got to the loo and not try abscond the house as my son would have done at 4. Even when upset she's very unlikely to run into the road. She tells me she's hungry, doesn't wait until she's angry and upset l, so many reasons that parenting a neurotypical child is as different from parenting my son as parenting my friends profoundly autistic child is from parenting my lower support needs son.

Say this was to happen and a new name for the diagnosis was given to those with very high care needs. What would actually be different?
All this talk about language and names and labels and diagnosis doesn’t ever achieve anything. Changing a name for a select group of people isn’t going to magic extra support or funding out of thin air is it? And what would the cut off be to be given this special name? It would only be a matter of time before someone complained that too many people were given it. And the cycle continues.

I agree that the spectrum is too broad. There is a large difference between those that are severely autistic, non verbal and unable to look after themselves to those that are high functioning. They should not be treated the same.

Yes definitely but I think the whole Autism spectrum becoming so wide has caused issues in itself.