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I've noticed some of my mutuals didn't know abt why functioning labels are harmful, that's OK! Here is why they are
Functioning labels are labels used by nt to describe people on the spectrum. Autistic people described as "Low functioning" are those who are nonverbal or speak very little and "look" and act certain ways that makes their autism "more noticeable" to others
People described as "High functioning" are those who can communicate with spoken language, can often mask and internalize their traits and their autism may be "less noticeable" to other people and are often told they "don't look autistic"
Functioning labels are flawed because they give the false idea that the autism spectrum is linear like this. And that a person is "less" and "more" autistic depending on where they fall therefor HF people struggle less in every area than LF people and that HF ppl don't need help
But actually, everyone on the spectrum has a different experience. Some nonverbal people could be really good at socializing using text while some verbal autistic people are not for example. Everyone has different sets of traits.
So the spectrum is something more like a color wheel. Each color representing different traits and different aspects of autism
Thank you for reading!
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