October 2010
13 posts
Is Flexible
Flexibility is possibly the Holy Grail. For gymnasts and divers in particular, especially in the more physical sense.
Mental and emotional flexibility is greatly valued too.
Sometimes it can be debased to “somebody who doesn’t have a routine”.
It has seemed, over time, that the higher-functioning somebody might be, the more flexible they might be.
Is an enjoyable person
I think according many people in my life, at least in describing me, “high functioning” seems to mean that I’m someone they enjoy being around or who they find charming or charismatic.
It apparently is also synonymous with “not really autistic.”
Bangs Her Head
I am a so called “high functioning Asperger’s autistic” with permanent brain damage from headbanging.
is present in your college dining hall
Me: Can you explain your T-shirt to me? Other student: The puzzle symbol is for autism. I have two siblings with autism. Me: That’s cool! I’m autistic too. Other student: Are you high-functioning? You seem very high-functioning.
is good at killing cows
I read an article in which Temple Grandin was referred to as “possibly the world’s highest functioning autistic”
looks normal? talks normal?
my mom likes to go to life skills workshops for people with ASD. Then she brings home the materials and mails them to me and tells me to read them and apply them to my life, etc.
because of my anxiety and general life skills problems, I have never been able to read any of the life skills materials.
my mom tells some stories about the funny/awkward things people say at the workshops. (these...
independent? talkative?
working at camp this summer I became really upset because I had received the files of my next two campers, and it said they “needed prompts” when getting dressed. because my own brain problems are along these lines, I had previously had emotionally exhausting experiences working with people who were not much more severely impaired in these areas than I am. it’s extremely hard to...
smart? I think?
girl I know: one of the kids I worked with this summer, I could tell he was incredibly incredibly incredibly incredibly high functioning autistic
me: (some clarifying question, as I was confused about how “incredibly incredibly incredibly incredibly high-functioning” an ASD person could be until they were just a non-disabled person)
girl: his family didn’t believe he had autism...
I genuinely have no idea what this means
this is a youtube message I received:
[for your edification, I am a twentysomething white Autistic person, who is verbal and has non-Autistic-Disorder ASD diagnoses, who makes videos of myself talking about disability rights, the pop culture framing of autism, and my disability experience, as well as playing music]
I was just skimming through your website and read your writing on the subject of...
is independent
at my job this summer I got annoyed by the constant use of the word “high-functioning” to refer to passing campers who were pulling rank on non-passing campers, and tried to introduce some kind of dopey philosophical argument: “but D. is such a neat person, I’d rather work with him than A. or S. How are A. and S. really more ‘high-functioning’ than him when...
knows how to get a peanut butter and banana...
at the camp where I worked (for adults with intellectual disabilities) campers could ask for a peanut butter and/or jelly sandwich if they didn’t like the other food at meals, and we would go make it for them. sometimes there was also fruit.
one guy would ask for peanut butter, bread, and a banana so he could make himself a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
the other counselor at my table...
is a fluent speaker
at my job this summer (working at a summer camp for teenagers and adults with disabilities, mostly intellectual disabilities) I was having a really hard time with a camper a few years older than me who had an intellectual disability and a really terrible history of abuse, being institutionalized, and other things. She really pulled rank on other campers because she didn’t look disabled and...
doesn't have meltdowns/get super upset
my dad was talking about someone he talked to who has an adult son with an intellectual disability.
“It’s always sad to hear about him, because he’s…not high-functioning, and he gets upset about things and he comes and knocks at her door and wants to talk about how he’s upset and sometimes she can’t do it and hides in the house.”
“So he lives on...
