ASD…. Should there be another name for a more ‘severe’ version.

[iminvestednow]

Please forgive me as I’m new to this, I have a son with Autism. This is his only diagnosis. He is a beautiful, kind and wonderful son.

DS struggles greatly, although we have made fantastic progress in so many areas he will still never lead a ‘normal life’. He has no concept of friends, money or any social convention, he will need help to get by forever, he is extremely vulnerable.

I’ve noticed recently (great that people are more accepting) a lot of people saying, I’ve been recently diagnosed with autism aged 40 and it’s helped me so much. I think it’s great that people are getting support but does it dilute what severe autism is? Most of these people are competent fully functioning members of society and will never need the kind of help my son does. Should there another term to differentiate?

I find the road tax thing weird too really. If you are able to drive yourself you can get your road tax paid, but if you can’t the car has to be kept only for your use to qualify. So basically you pay for the road tax because nobody can afford a separate car for one child.

Autism has jagged profiling - that means the individual can have strong skills in some areas and not others.

And some individuals, like my relative, have no skills whatsoever. He is much loved, but there are no areas where is skilled, or able to function at the most rudimentary level alone.