To think the terms "neuro diverse" and "neuro typical" will be short lived.

[theplatformedge]

Diversity means "a range of many people or things that are very different from each other" (Oxford learner's dictionary), so the idea that a minority of people are "neuro diverse" and everyone else is "neuro typical" is not only semantically illogical, but also potentially offensive.

We're all different. Some people have traits that make life more difficult for them than others, whether it be ASD, ADHD or a range of other conditions, with spectrums of severity. Telling people that you're neuro-diverse is so vague as to be meaningless, and telling other people they are nero-typical when you have no idea what they're feeling inside is insensitive. Some people get a formal diagnosis for their symptoms, some people self-diagnose and others don't recognise it in themselves. Nobody knows how many people are living with these traits across the population, but the massive increase in diagnostics suggests they're a lot more common than anyone ever thought in the past, and therefore gradually becoming very "typical".

Discuss! 🙂

My daughter and my son do not have mild autism. Your child may have learning difficulties in addition to his autism but it gives you no right to dictate and relabel the diagnosis my children have.

Don't get this. Simply pointing out that if you can read, write, hold a job, attend a mainstream school then you don't have severe autism. That doesn't mean you don't have difficulties, milder autism, a disability, or anything else.

To date none of my children have been diagnosed with autism, and nor are they are showing any autistic traits. They are very young though, so it's a possibility. If they are autistic, then, I would certainly hope they have it mildly and not severely like my DB.

There is no such thing as mild autism. You either have it or you don’t.

How do you know you don't think like the majority- how do you think the majority do think? Is that humans globally or locally?

I am dyslexic, with a diagnosis- I don't think I think any differently and even if I do it has no actual impact to me and those around me. Apparently dyslexia makes me nd - I think it is a meaningless term as it tells you nothing about me if I tell you that - it could mean anything.

Severe mental impairment (as I’ve taken from the DLA) is used in similar to global delays. There are other types of severe delays within autism, but SMI generally means learning delayed. I’m not sure that makes sense, utterly exhausted I’m afraid. Basically severity comes in different forms but lack of communication and understanding comes very highly in any functionality and suggest lifelong care. Meeting needs for some autistic people may fluctuate from low to high needs.

@AloeNora
There's clearly no point discussing this with you. Maybe one day you will meet someone with severe or profound autism and have a bit more insight.
@maddening totally agree with you. I'm dyslexic and loathe the term ND - I don't see why I should be "othered"; I'm normal and quite boring thank you very much.

I live with two young people who have had their lives severely and catastrophically impacted by severe autism thanks.

WTF! It's okay to use the term "severe autism" but not "mild autism"?? Is this for real?!

This is typical. The denial that autism is the diagnosis. The push on social media is that those with severe autism really have autism plus another issue. It is incredibly disrespectful.

You are the one putting in categories. If you want to go down that route I will put my children into the category they belong not the one you dictate.

alltootired

Well then don’t discredit everybody else’s diagnosis just because they don’t present the same. Now that is disrespectful.

That's simply untrue though.

I am a high needs individual who is autistic, I require daily support and cannot do many tasks that a NT adult can, yet I can read, write, hold a job albeit with various instances of absence and attended mainstream school. I then recently experienced a true autistic burnout and lost my ability to do many things, including speaking.

Your brother sounds like he is also very high needs and has been for a very long time and sounds very likely he will continue to be but it also sounds like your brother may have other comorbidities in addition to his autism.

It's really offensive that you're trying to tell people who have significantly high needs with which their daily lives are impacted, find society disabling, and require intense support that they have "mild" autism.

Other people having high needs does not take away from your brother having high needs that are different, or prolonged.

Other people presenting differently again does not impact your brother.

@AloeNora you are the one denying the behaviour that we are saying makes it severe autism is autism. You are saying it is learning difficulties. You are wrong.

You are wrong about how my children diagnosis.. So there you go maybe posters shouldn’t comment and dictate how others they’ve never met are diagnosed particularly when they are not qualified to do so. You are not my childrens’ diagnostician.

This is the thing years ago when people thought of autism they thought of non verbal children and adults needing round the clock care. Or on a "milder" end of the scale you'd think of people like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman.
But over the years the term autism seems to have come to mean something totally different. Those presenting the "old way" now apparently don't just have autism. They have learning difficulties or mental impairments on top. "Newer" autism seems to be where people claim things like it being a superpower etc.
It seems like eventually those with "old fashioned autism" will end up having a totally different diagnosis. Because people want to put the emphasis on "mental impairments or learning difficulties" rather than the autism itself causing issues.

I have a child with asd and complex needs. I think neirodivergent is helpful as it reminds some ignorant people that the behaviour stems from brain development and isn't just behavioural. It's very general though. My son has very low levels of functioning and just saying someone is neurodiverse is a bit too broad and down plays how affected he is. I think we do need to label functioning.

Yes, because there isn’t such a thing as mild when it comes to a disability that impairs day to day functioning regardless of how severe it can present. Even in ‘high functioning’ form, ASD can severely affect a person simply because of societal expectations of functioning typically.

It is draining just to meet basic expectations of how to function like a typical person, to meet the right social cues, think about a conversation before you have it, hope you’re making the right amount of eye contact, the anxiety thinking about previous conversations, not knowing if you missed marks, not understanding when you’ve missed them and why someone is currently angry with you, thinking something is angry with you when they’ve simply had a bad day. Overthinking into the early hours. This isn’t adding in sensory issues, going to the shops, they’re bright, loud, there’s a kid screaming 5 aisle down and you can’t focus on what you need to do, they’ve moved things around and now your routine is out of order, if you forget something you have to go through all this again later, the cashier is making small talk, you haven’t prepared for this, it’s loud and your head is in white noise, you hope half smiling and hope you’re not missing important information. You go home and do nothing because an hour’s shop has wiped you for the day.

And that’s a moment in a day of a ‘high functioning’ autistic person who’s ’managing day to day’ stuff, never mind the overwhelming life admin of paying bills and running a home, going to work. If that wall of text sent you a bit spinning, then imagine what it’s like simply trying to wade through life like running through mud and someone saying your condition is ‘mild’.

I'm saying it's mild for autism because sadly it is. The condition can get really serious. It would probably be better for Aspergers to still be in wider use - that way people with the difficulties you describe could have severe Aspergers, or just Aspergers if you prefer. But within the spectrum of autism, someone with the level of functionality you describe, though clearly very significant in their own right, is still only mildly autistic, simply because of how severe it gets.
Some conditions are more severe than others eg mild autism is still way more of an interference in normal day to day living than severe dyslexia would be.

My daughter attended mainstream school until 16. She then could no longer go due to severe autistic burnout. ie she masked all her life. Where would that leave her? She’s been out of school since April.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow But it still doesn't make it severe autism. Surely you know there are people who can't talk or understand anything and spend their lives waving their hands and bodies around? That is severe autism.
Your daughters' difficulties are clearly severe, but cannot be severe autism. I wish you both well.

That’s really an interesting point.
Neurodiverse + gender fluid definitely seems to be a thing
I wonder if some presentations of ADHD are actually early childhood trauma causing dissociation / spacing out / lack of attention. Have wondered that about myself but think I have both !!

You’re still missing the point and I’m not sure if you have the comprehension to understand. Autism can be a fluctuating condition, some like your brother may always need high care/support but that doesn’t mean that his obvious care needs is comparable to someone else with autism and their high needs. Whether they’re in a ‘functional’ aspect or not. Undermining autism as mild causes a far greater likelihood of masking until a breakdown in comparison to recognition of constant high care needs (which can absolutely fluctuate as well).

I can only put my experience out there, but of my two sons with ASD, it is my ‘Asperger’s’ presenting child I am more concerned about in the long term. Because though my other son with severe delays certainly has bad days and meltdowns from lack of understanding, he generally seems quite happy in his own world. My eldest seems terrified of the world he’s expected to fit into, and the consequences of him having a bad day because the mask slipped are far less understanding that of a child who presents with high delays. It’s easy to see how undiagnosed or those seen as ‘high functioning’ end up in catastrophe as adults - it comes from the idea that their disability is mild rather than see how all the smaller difficulties end up in a huge breakdown.

So we mustn't use 'severe autism' because the 'severe' part is actual related to a severe mental impairment?
Some of the severe difficulties I would list are part of the classic autism diagnosis. Such as persistent echolalia which can last for hours and cause individuals to be completely oblivious to their surroundings with excessive stimming, running and bouncing, that again can last for hours and can cause injury. These are just a couple of the examples of classic autism that would be called severe autism, alongside other behaviours. It's wrong to say that these behaviours aren't related to autism and should be classed as 'autism with something else'

I'm not referring to my dyslexia. I'm talking personality. Of course I can't be sure the majority of people don't think like me, but from what I see, I can be reasonably certain they don't.

I don't define myself as dyslexic. But I had to change my username because I got pissed off with fuckers impling I'm as thick as shit picking apart my spelling. You can be dyslexic and very strange indeed just like you can be non dyslexic and very strange. I'm a programmer and lots of my fellow programmers are dyslexic so that's pretty standard in my world. None of them are strange ( to me).