Mild autism

[Exactfare]

So fed up of all these threads about not wanting to seek a diagnosis for kids with "mild autism"

My kid is bright, articulate and has what would have been diagnosed as "Asperger's" once upon a time. You might not realise he's autistic straight away if you didn't know what you were looking for (it's massively obvious if you do)

He also struggles massively with lots of perfectly normal aspects of life, the actual definition of autism is a significant impairment in 3 key areas

Maybe all these kids who are social, function well at school and don't seem.to struggle aren't actually autistic 🙃🤔

Agreed.

Also sick of reading nonsense in MN "autism" threads like "opposite ends of the spectrum".

You need significant deficits to be diagnosed. That's shit. (Having the deficits that is) "Mild" still equals significant deficits.

Pisses me right off.

Maybe they are masking?

Totally agree.

However autism is such a huge spectrum it can be unhelpful when trying to explain to people who don't have much understanding.

But masking what if they are social well adjusted kids who get on fine at school? Maybe they just aren't autistic?

Masking kids don't keep it up all the time, my kid doesn't like to stim in front of strangers (although he can't contain it fully if very stressed)

This ☝️☝️☝️

I understand what people mean as I know kids who are non-verbal who have very significant and very obvious difficulties whereas if the deficits are less obvious it may seem "mild"'or it may comfort the parents to think that.

What's mild autism? My son was diagnosed privately (we're in Ireland so no hope publicly) and they refused to say if it was mild or not. It was just "he's on the spectrum, we don't like to use labels". I think myself he's more to the "mild" end. We still qualify for an "incapacitated child" tax credit of about 3, 900 euro per annum in the same way as a parent of a child who is towards the more severe end of the scale, though I'm sure the resource needs are very different.

There is a whole other thread about this on right now, that this appears to be a TAAT.

This isn't so much my issue so much as people saying they don't see the point in a diagnosis as their kid functions well (so what makes you hink they are autistic! ) as it feels it minimises the struggles of other kids who might be articulate and verbal but are actually autistic, and it makes it seem that a diagnosis can be bought

Yes we went privately, with the support of school I may add, because we didn't want to wait 3 years that's not the same as buying a diagnosis

I totally understand the complexes of a catch all diagnosis for kids with and without significant learning disabilities

Inspired by that yes, but only because I've come across lots of this sentiment recently online and in real life

Aren't all autistic kids a bit different from each other?

However reading your post properly I don't get why parents wouldn't want their child assessed even with just being a little bit on the spectrum either. My son is three and has been referred. I definitely don't think it he will be significantly affected but he definitely is on the spectrum and I want him to be able to have help at school (probably being hopeful!). I suppose they might feel like a fraud as I do because it seems quite mild compared to others?

I’ve put YABU because of your last paragraph “maybe all these kids who are social, functional well at school and don’t seem to struggle aren’t actually autistic”. You should know better. As a middle aged woman who has only this year been diagnosed I’m all too aware of ‘masking’. Comments like those are the reason I’m not telling many people

Fed up of all these threads so I’ll make another one ….

I'm autistic, diagnosed in adulthood.

I suppose my autism seems mild to some since I am verbal, of normal inelligence, can live independently, and parent.

As a primary school kid, I would have seemed non autistic apart from not being able to really make friends. I was very quiet and withdrawn but happy enough.

It was in high school that I really started to struggle, which led to self harm and eating disorders. I also had what would have been known now as school refusal but no understanding of how how unhappy I was and I constantly got into trouble.

When I went to uni I completely fell apart and dropped out at the end of second year. During my time there I had made suicide attempts and spend some time in a psychiatric hospital.

This is what would be classified as mild autism by some. I want to urge parents to get their kids tested i they or someone else suspects they are autistic. They might seem to be doing well in childhood but there is no guarantee that they will not have ssignnificant struggles later in life.

A lot of the world uses levels 1, 2 and 3 to describe autism. I really wish we did that here. It might stop some of the arguments about mild and severe autism.

Cognitive disabilities are separate to autism, although often co-occurring. No part of the autism criteria is predicated on intellectual markers, but people get confused because many but nowhere near all autistic people have cognitive disabilities. Much like the confusion of people hearing 'spectrum' and thinking of a linear scale from mild to severe, when actually it's more of a circle/web/piechart! https://the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

You are not wrong re significant deficits but mostly it just means you've been up a learning curve that they haven't.

Your thread will probably educate a few more people. Great. It's a process for everyone.