You Don’t Speak for My Child!
High functioning people like you don't speak for my child!
That is a very common and unfortunate objection to essays describing life on the autism spectrum. I heard (or read) quite a bit of
that in response to my recent column in the MIT Technology Review. The words seemed to come most often from
parents who felt their kids have more major challenges than me. Much has been written about calling people
high functioning or low functioning.
With all respect to you and your situation, I don’t do it anymore and I
suggest you don’t either.
It’s not accurate, and it’s degrading to us “high and low
functioning people.” Suggesting that,
“you’re a real high functioning autistic” feels to me a lot like “you talk
pretty good for a retard.” People say
the former to me all the time today, and they said the latter to me quite a bit
50 years ago. I didn’t like it then and
I don’t like it now.
Both phrases imply I (and all others like me) are pretty
good even though we are the “other;” some lesser class of human. How would you feel about that, if it were
you?
The problem with labels like these is that their meaning is
insidious and we don’t always catch on right away. Autistics like me were called retards in
casual conversation by all sorts of people in 1965. That does not happen anywhere near as much
today, but phrases like “high or low functioning” have evolved to mean the same
thing. At their inception I don’t think
they had a pejorative meaning. Retard
didn’t start as a pejorative either, for that matter. But both do now.
I used to use those words and phrases myself, before I understood their meaning. Now I know better. I used to smile when I was the butt of jokes too. I smiled because I wanted to fit in and be liked, and the others laughed so I laughed too. Now that I understand, I cringe at those memories. I don't laugh at stuff like that anymore.
In 1965 we also used other names for levels of observed
intellectual ability. Moron or idiot,
for example. Those names are problematic
for the same reasons. Those of us who are honored with labels like that feel the
sting of being less, no matter what our functioning level. You may claim that I can’t speak for others
but I can say this: I have spoken with thousands of autistic people of all
intellectual levels and not one has taken issue with that particular statement. Describing
us as “less” always hurts.
But it takes time to realize that. My dad had what my family an "idiot cousin who tended the
pigs," back in Georgia. That’s how
everyone described him, growing up, and I pretty much ignored him because I was
told, “he didn’t have any truck with people, just pigs.” Today we would call Bob a non verbal
autistic, and we might even find a way for him to communicate. Sometimes we look back with shame at the
things we said and did long ago, but we didn’t know any better. Now we do, and rather than dismiss people
like Bob we try and understand and engage them.
That's more important today because society has changed. When my dad was a boy it was possible for a nonverbal person to have a life with farm animals and nature, out in the country, and be safe. That's not so true now. What we called "the mountain farm" is now a subdivision outside Chattanooga, TN.
That's more important today because society has changed. When my dad was a boy it was possible for a nonverbal person to have a life with farm animals and nature, out in the country, and be safe. That's not so true now. What we called "the mountain farm" is now a subdivision outside Chattanooga, TN.
We now know that our functional level changes with time and
other factors. As bright and capable as
someone like me can seem, I can have meltdowns during which I become
essentially nonfunctional and have no more usable intellectual capability that
someone with an IQ of 70. It’s true that
is not a lasting condition for me, but it happens, and when it does I would
just as soon not be stigmatized for it.
In the longer term many autistics grow up to be far more
capable in society than they were as children, especially when compared to
their same-age peers. My autistic son, for example, did not read till he was
10. At age 9 he was in the lowest
percentile for several developmental milestones. Now, at age 24, he is near the
top. But that does not mean he is not
challenged by autism. He is; just
differently than as a boy. What some
called low functioning became something different through natural processes.
I’ve had the same experience. Psychologists say we learn
adaptive strategies. Neurologists think
our brain pathways may develop later.
There are various explanations but they all boil down to this: autism
causes developmental delay, and we may therefore be developing and improving
much later in life than you might expect.
Many of us experience significant functional improvement in our fourth,
fifth, and even sixth decades of life.
That would be unusual for neurotyopicals but it’s common for us.
As an alternative to functioning labels, consider describing
someone has having particular challenges or not. I am very verbal. Other autistics are non-speaking. A few don’t communicate successfully at all,
in ways we understand, though they may still be trying. Many of us have medical challenges of very
different kinds. To say that I speak and
your son does not is not to call him less. One day he may speak, and you won’t say that
anymore. Or maybe he will never
speak. You never know with this autism.
I often hear that head-banging, biting, and aggressive
behavior sets some autistics apart from me.
Why? I smashed holes in my walls as a kid, with my head. And I bit. When you ask yourself why we would do that, “being autistic,” is not the answer. The answer is frustration combined with
cognitive challenges. Communicate with
those people successfully, respect them, understand and help with their
challenges, and most of those behaviors will moderate. Do I presume to answer for every single case?
Of course not, but I’m confident there is a lot of truth in that
philosophy.
The final issue I’d like to talk about is this: In our
society, it is the bright and articulate who find voice in the media, in
schools, and in workplaces. They do that
because their skill with words causes others to sit up and listen. When those articulate people express thoughts
about the economy or how we run our schools, we do not knock them down by
saying, “Those are high-functioning views. People like my son don’t agree!”
The autism spectrum contains people of every intellectual
level. Why is it that the bright and
articulate autistics are attacked for possessing the ability to speak out about
our shared autism? It always surprises me that parents attack me for what seems essentially being different. I'm not their enemy. I'm not the only verbal autistic person who's felt that sting. "You're not a real autistic person. MY son has real autism."
When I talk about therapies that are needed, I consistently
advocate for research that will benefit people whose cognitive challenges seem
very different from my own. I do that
because I believe we have a societal duty to help all autistic people, not just
some. That’s what community is about,
folks. Attacking a community’s
articulate members when they advocate for the group won’t help their less
articulate brothers. It just hurts
everyone.
There is a valid concern that bears mention. Autism has such a broad range of affect that
your experience as an autistic person may have little or nothing in common with
my own. So I may not know much about
your life from the mere fact that we are both autistic. If I choose to speak up as an autistic
person, I feel I have a duty to try and understand the full breadth of autism’s
affect so that I can describe our shared spectrum fairly. While “my spot on the spectrum” is obviously
the one I know best, I recognize a duty to “speak my best for all spots” when I
raise my voice in public. I believe
this is a general moral obligation that’s shared by anyone who chooses to speak
for a common cause.
In closing I'd also like to point out that I have never claimed to speak for you, your child, or any other specific individual. My words are my own; grounded in my life experience. The idea that I have a duty to advocate for the breadth of the autism community is not a presumption that I speak for specific individuals. It's simply a recognition that my words may be broadly interpreted as an "autistic voice" and I should try and make those words helpful and not harmful for autistics as a group.
In closing I'd also like to point out that I have never claimed to speak for you, your child, or any other specific individual. My words are my own; grounded in my life experience. The idea that I have a duty to advocate for the breadth of the autism community is not a presumption that I speak for specific individuals. It's simply a recognition that my words may be broadly interpreted as an "autistic voice" and I should try and make those words helpful and not harmful for autistics as a group.
Obviously the acquisition and dissemination of understanding
is an ever-evolving process. I speak out
the best I can today, and when I learn more tomorrow, I will speak then with
the benefit of that new knowledge.
That’s all any of us can do.
John Elder Robison is an autistic adult and advocate for people with neurological differences. He's the author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, Raising Cubby, and the forthcoming Switched On. He's served on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Dept of Health and Human Services and many other autism-related boards. He's co-founder of the TCS Auto Program (A school for teens with developmental challenges) and he’s the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The opinions expressed here are his own. There is no warranty expressed or implied. While reading this essay may give you food for thought, actually printing and eating it may make you sick.
Comments
When people say High or Low Functioning to me lately to describe others with autism, I've been rejecting it as a non-descriptor and inappropriate. Thanks John for this essay that explains it far better than I can.
In my opinion neral variation is natural and important. Mice have simple brains and develop quickly. Humans have complex brains and take much longer to reach maturity. Humans with Autism take even longer to develop and can remember significantly more information in detail even from times before they became fully responsive. Why aren't professionals telling parents this?
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2014/05/john-robison-at-imfar-on-autism-rights.html
I have another author that I follow on Facebook (historical fiction writer, nothing to do with autism). She has sold many millions of books and there is now a TV series based on her book series). There is a lot of love and appreciation expressed on her page, but there are whiners and complainers too and sometimes she addresses them.
I think both you and she should concentrate on the supporters and move forward with your work and interests as you like. The people that are making noise behind the safety of their anonymous keyboard are not worth your time and should not take away from your focus. Your energy should be spent elsewhere.
I appreciate all you do and have followed you for years. If there is something you write that doesn't ring true to me or my situation with my son, it doesn't discount all the other things that do. I take your perspective for what it is, YOUR perspective. And I appreciate you putting yourself out there and sharing it with the world.
I am the only parent of my now 19yo daughter with autism who is non-verbal. I also am an advocate on state and federal issues and policies that impact persons with autism.
I'm going to focus on autism and my daughter in my comments, but they might apply to almost anyone in any situation. Where the words of anyone speaking about persons with autism become a potential problem for me is when they affect my daughter's choices and her right to freely make informed choices. This is especially real in areas such as housing and employment where I have chosen to devote my second career.
I believe that persons with autism have the human and civil rights to live, work, play, socialize, recreate, learn, love and worship in the setting and manner of their choosing, with the support of their family, friends and caregivers.
People who care about persons with autism should be focusing their efforts on increasing opportunities and decreasing barriers to the settings and resources needed and desired.
The challenge is that too often legislators, advocacy groups and even some self advocates place unequal weight on the words of persons whose viewpoints they consider more authentic by virtue of their ability to articulate them more clearly. Some of these groups (e.g. ASAN) claim to speak for all persons with autism when in fact they only speak for themselves and their membership. Some unfortunately go even further and denigrate viewpoints and voices from the autism community with which they disagree.
To the point of your post, I think often the frustration of parents is that they feel the voices of their more impacted children are not being heard or represented in the larger discourse. I think they fear that the choices available to their children, and the rights to make those choices, will be impacted without their voices being taken into consideration.
I am a persistent and articulate mouthpiece for my daughter and any other person with autism or family member who asks me to express their views because I can. In the area of housing, for example, I co-founded the Coalition for Community Choice (www.coalitionforcommunitychoice.org) to provide a platform for other voices to be heard at state and federal levels.
Not every parent has the time, energy, skills, or resources to do this for themselves or their children. Through your abilities and initiative, John, you have achieved a high degree of visibility and authority in the autism community. Your final two paragraphs capture what I feel is the obligation of those of us who have that capacity. Thank you again. Mark Olson
The only thing I would slightly quibble with is your statement about developmental delay. I would prefer to say developmental difference. Some aspects may be delayed, some may be more rapid. But all are perfectly natural for an autistic. Our challenge is that we live in an NT world that judges our differences as problems, or as you say, "less than."
Acceptance and understanding come slowly, and I greatly appreciate all you do to move that along.
I too have been attacked for being too "high functioning" to understand "real" autism, and it's just as offensive and rude as someone else being called a r----d. I offer my perspective, and I urge people to listen, because they might find truths about themselves or their autistic loved ones in it. But is my word gospel? Not by a long shot. That said, if it's between my perspective of autism and a neurotypical's, I will assert my right to be heard over theirs, because I live it. It's nonsensical to ask, say, a heterosexual person what life is like for a member of the LGBTQ community. Why would anyone listen to a neurotypical about life with autism, when there are autistics here ready and waiting to speak?
I also love love love the point about the fact that we never claimed to speak for anyone. Unless, of course, we do so explicitly!
I am not always in agreement with what you have to say, but you've earned my respect for putting things simply, concisely and pointedly. My best to you.
Look me in the eye was the first book I read that made me able to look the diagnosis in the eye, and accept it, and not feel it was a doorway to a less-than life.
When Max was in school, he WANTED to learn. Staff wanted to teach. One teacher said teaching him to multiply & divide was the highlight of his long career in spec.ed. Admin said that's not what we're here for; we have to get him ready to work. Upshot: he's neither ready for a job nor college. He's 24 years old, talks Thomas the Tank Engine, and is eager for 3rd grade. His day service doesn't know what to do with him. There's guys my age at the service who are missing even more, but still there's progress from back when. We must remember that. And together we'll make change for the younger ones.
And maybe we'll even survive ourselves. Somedays i wonder about that.
I must admit, I cannot imagine that condition; I was still in the single digits of age when I was forced to accept that people (especially the uneducated and children) are generally cruel, and will find some excuse to insult and denigrate; that the only effective coping strategy was to be "tough enough" that mere words couldnt cause pain. Surprisingly, it wasnt very hard. Indeed, there's even a nursery rhyme they used to teach in pre-school for the purpose. Something about "sticks and stones" if I remember correctly.
Perhaps we should worry less about words, and more about deeds. I would rather see "Uncle Dan" or my cousin raising hogs because he could, and it is productive, that the current nightmare program of half-way houses shopping out these poor souls to fast-food chains like slave labor, keeping most of the check to pay for provided "care", and further impoverishing the already poor.
Indeed, the reason Ive happily turned my back on the entire field is because of the focus on words and other irrelevancies; treating symptoms instead of the disease.
ijin
But I got in the habit of using them before I realized that other people were asserting negative connotations to the different phrases.
Your post has me seriously reconsidering the trade-off I'm making with the "convenient" choice.