Why do I get so cross about the word "autistic"

[frizzcat]

Okay cross is not the word more like bristle. I "bristle" when someone calls my ds "an autistic child" or talks about him as "they". No one child is the same as another and so Id rather he was referred to by his name rather than an effing label, I'm not in denial or ashamed but I don't go round saying to red heads "well you know you have a ginger child" just makes angry

Lol.
Need a pair for dh too.

Doesn't acceptability depend mainly on context? And perhaps [pedantic emoticon] whether it's applied to the child or to their symptoms, and whether it's used as a verb or a noun. My rule of thumb is to mentally swap in an ethnicity-related word or phrase. If people constantly mention that a child is (say) French, it's probably dodgy, as is totally ignoring the fact or feeling the need for euphemisms.

Personally, I bristle most at 'DS1 has a diagnosis of ASD'. Because in context it's shorthand for 'you may have persuaded someone to label him with asd but we aren't sure and it won't alter our dealings with him or his family'. But [hollow laugh emoticon] 'he's had a lot of autistic behaviours today' would reassure me they'd noticed.

A 'spastic legs' comment might be acceptable if it was a technical description of what a physiotherapist was treating but not as a playground taunt.

Granted Maria... context has a great deal to do with what we do and say, and there are times when I simply say he's on the autistic spectrum.

I agree maria, context is everything.
Spastic, for example, is an specific medical term, pertaining to muscle spasm and in a medical context only is perfectly valid but is abhorrent in any other context.

My DD refers to herself as "artistic". Which I like