How to talk about autism

Autistic people describe themselves and autism in different ways, so it is always best to ask the person what they prefer.

Some people may struggle to communicate their preference. If you can't ask them, try asking someone who knows them well.

A lot of autistic people prefer to be known as “autistic” rather than “having autism”. They may see autism as part of who they are and reject the idea that they have a medical condition.

Terms we avoid

There are some terms used to describe autistic people that are not accurate and can continue stereotypes. For example.

The terms ‘high functioning’ or ‘low functioning’ can be misleading. For example, a “high functioning” autistic person who is successful at work may crash over the weekend and barely function. Meanwhile, people who are considered “low functioning” may have considerable abilities that are not appreciated or recognised.
We also avoid talking about “challenging behaviour”. It is likely it will be more accurate to say “distressed behaviour”, which reflects that there is always a context. It may be that the so-called challenging behaviour has happened as a result of being in an enviornment the young person can’t cope with, or that something has happened to provoke the behaviour. People around the autistic young person need to also recognise the part that their day-to-day stress, issues, and the environment also play.
People don’t “suffer” from being autistic. A person may suffer from chronic depression or a disease like cancer and be autistic.

Autism as a difference, not a deficit

Medical research defines autism as a disorder because it differs from being non-autistic. But we believe that being autistic simply means you have a brain that processes information differently to a non-autistic person, and inventions and discoveries that had advanced our societies and made our lives better have been made possible thanks to autistic people.

Autism is a neuro-type (i.e. a pattern of brain functioning), in the same way ADHD, dyslexic and “neurotypical” (non-autistic) brains are. Having equal respect for the different neurotypes is important for the mental health and employment outcomes of autistic people. Having a neurotypical brain isn’t the ideal or correct brain type, it’s just the brain type of the majority.

Please note

After consulting with our networks, we now use the word 'autistic' rather than 'with autism'. However, some of our older resources use person-first language. We are continuing to update our resources, but you may come across some that still use the words 'with autism'.