solving Autism

[Crossbreed]

The feces spreaders were never inadvertently mainstreamed however. Nor were they underdiagnosed. Their numbers have actually increased.

 

[the_tortoise]

I am describing my own ASD3 daughter and many that we have met who are like her.
Her ASD2 brother has other socio-pathic issues.
(We still love the stuffin' out of both of them, though!)
You have no cause for offense.

Actually I do.

There is nothing wrong with being at 2 year old functioning forever.

I am at small child level forever in some ways - much more restricted/fewer ways than your children I am assuming. And I am glad you love your children just as they are - that is how it always should be!

(I am probably a 1 for communication, although I might border on 2 because my speech is not anything like my writing, usually...., it is hard to say...without typing specifically, I would absolutely be level 2 (and without my mother building up my reaading and written language skills I would probably still be functionally nonverbal and Level 3 - my speech is built on written language as a foundation, with songs as the most important bridge)...., because I write slowly and even trying my best my writing is barely legible to most people.... really am not sure and my psychologist didnt say much or anything about that)

But being stereotyped as something you are not is offensive -- I do have reasons, actually.

I am as offended when people overestimate me as I am when they underestimate me as I am when they maybe get the ability or support needs levels right but the specifics of the abilities/supports needed wildly wrong. Because it is almost never that I am just guessed about incorrectly and allowed to set the record straight or challenge anyone's opinion, experts and ignorant laypeople alike...my input is usually unwanted and not listened to in the first place, or I am allowed to give it but it is discarded without consideration.

I am offended because the stereotypes you are applying render me invisible and/or paint me as me as things I am not, or else as a liar.

Being rendered invisible/ told you cannot possibly exist because of a conceptual model of Autism based on stereotypes you (and so so many others) do not fit is hurtful and offensive. Being called a liar when you tell the truth is hurtful and extremely offensive.

I do exist and I'm not a liar.

What I say about being told (her opinion) I am most "probably" level 3 for RRB/Sensory means my psychologist's assigned level for me in that category was 3 and basically she couldnt see anyone assessing me higher than level 2 . This comes from a psychologist who was an expert in ASD at all levels, with a background before a short time before becoming a psychologist as a special ed teacher, who has been hired by governments and legal bodies and families fighting for services or other things for their child as an expert witness in court cases and legal appeals and similar things. She worked with me for over a decade. I am a weird case that challenged even her but I am not the only one. I am not a liar.

The support level categories are (and this is exactly what was intended but people dont seem able to understand diversity within diversity, everyone wants simplistic easy small-number-of categories, that is never going to work for something like ASD - for some yes, but definitely not for all or even likely the majority -- autism is too complex, it touches too many areas of a person's cognition and ability and functioning in the world and not always in uniform ways) actually there to more accurately account for people like me...you can be level 1 in one area and level 2 or 3 in another. But sadly, as I and so many othere predicted would happen, the support levels categories are just being oversimplified and people try to make them fit the extemely inadequate and misleading "functioning levels" that came before them -- as you are, by saying (a) That a person is always one single level in both categories that are assigned levels, and; (b) conceptualizing them so that there are only 2 levels rather than the actual 3, and that conveniently exactly match your ideas of "high functioning" and "low functioning".

It hurts to be rendered invisible, and it hurts even more in a world where most people who believe the stereotypes you do are not so loving as you are.

 

[Crossbreed]

I am not promoting a stereotype. I am reporting my experience.
It is salient to the absurd idea that ASD2s & 3s were somehow not acknowledged before DSM-4.