I’m autistic (what would have previously been Asperger’s) and utterly detest the “autism is a gift/superpower” narrative. If people want to see themselves in that way that’s fine but it must be clear that it’s how they view their own, and only their own, autism (and same goes for every other kind of neurodivergence or disability).
However what’s always really clear throughout these kind of debates - including on this thread - is that the people who are in the middle are largely forgotten and left out of the discussion.
It’s always high IQ, often late diagnosed, Asperger’s type vs. severe/profound autism, incontinent, non-speaking. Number levels aren’t routinely used in the U.K. but it’s what would be level 1 vs. Level 3+.
There are also many people who land somewhere in the middle and they just seem to be forgotten.
Both my kids are in between and if given a level would be level 2. Both are exceptionally bright but both have needs that go well beyond what the old Asperger’s criteria covered. Their adaptive functioning is too low, difficulties in early childhood went well beyond social communication etc. People think all of the “bright and verbal” crowd are fairly low needs but it’s really not true and it’s not just burnout due to masking, social anxiety etc (not that those things don’t absolutely suck). Even within this “in between” space, one of mine has significantly higher needs than the other; they have numerous complex comorbidities though and it’s near impossible to disentangle those from autism entirely. On the surface you would think one has no speech and language difficulties and some would then immediately stick them in a category of “shouldn’t be diagnosed”.
Both kids are Gestalt Language Processors but with their sky-high intellects they have huge mental libraries of complex sentences and scripts so their language appears exceptionally advanced. However, their receptive language (what they understand) is below their expressive language (what they can say). Certain areas of receptive language are many years below chronological age. They have difficulties with transitions (one, severely). Both have areas of incredible talent, but one is too disabled to do anything with it really, and the other has substantial barriers to reaching their potential and will probably not have the career and opportunity they should have because their barriers are substantial. Both require specialist schooling. One has challenging behaviours and will likely need significant levels of care throughout their life; maybe both will, we don’t know yet.
There are also lots of people in this “in between” space who have a whole range of cognitive and verbal ability. Some will have a learning disability, some will be average, you’ll have the whole spread.
All will look different from each other.
So, can people please stop pretending that bright autistic people that can speak are all “Asperger’s type”, only really struggle with social communication and mental health, and that all of those very significantly affected by autism also have an intellectual disability and/or are non-speaking? There are people out there who don’t fit either box and I tell you what as well, there are no services, very little schooling options etc for kids like mine with the more unusual profiles. I know there’s a lack of options out there for all autistic people but there would be more for my kids if they had either lower autistic needs OR lower intellects and very obvious language delays.
I don’t know why this middle group aren’t really talked about - I suppose because they don’t really fit either side of the argument and typically neither have parents wanting to shout about what a gift their autistic existence is, nor those talking about caring for someone with that profound level of disability, and I suppose they will have - to varying degrees - the ability to understand what their parents and carers are saying about them, so people are less likely to be talking about how hard they are to look after and so on. Also the autistic adults in this middle ground are typically neither the loudly self-advocating-online type, nor very immediately obviously apparent when they go out in public as a group from a residential home for example, so they’re just sort of… hidden.