What is low-functioning autism like?

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I have met many people with LFA:

This boy at school, he has very little speech, lots of repetitive behaviours, he often hums. He can be laughing at one moment, for no apparent reason, than a few minutes later, he will start crying for no apparent reason. If you put on music that he doesn't like, he will go and turn it off. If you put on music that he likes, he will turn it up. He loves water and bananas. He once tried to take my banana. He often uses gestures such as grabbing to communicate. He is a nice boy though. He will sometimes scratch you when he grabs you, but I don't think he realizes he is doing that.

This girl at camp a few years ago. She couldn't talk, but she didn't need one-on-one supervision all the time. She would often try and respond to you if you asked her a question. Like, when she was asked if she wanted to sleep in the tent or the cabana on camp-out night, she said "ent". She loved ants and didn't need as much help as the boy above in daily tasks, but she needed more help from me for sure.

I know other "low-functioing" people, but I am not sure if they are autistic or not.

I also know people who are between low functioning and high functioning. I call them "moderate functioning".

Looking at the various posted videos, it almost feels like the differences aren't even that big...I especially liked the metaphor of a volume knob being turned up. I think that computers and the like allow LFAs to reach out more, and make clear that they have hopes and dreams like anyone else.

Well my cousin is kind of similiar to a low functioning autistic person but not really autistic as his caregiver claimed that he is a full fledged low functioning Kanner Type. Here is the real story, when he was born he had a lack of oxygen to his brain. Then at the age of 6 months, he started to have a major epileptic siezure disorder. That regresssed him down. The real cause of his profound intellectual disability was those things. My father and my cousins caregivers say he has low functioning Kanner Autism. My mother who explained the real cause for my cousins mental disability was not autism and he did not have autism. But in my view, my cousin has PDD-NOS, or in my book "Borderline Autism" because he would be too low functioning to have the capacity to do a sufficent amount of or tell what symptons for Kanner Autism he really has, though he resembled Kanner Autism to some sort. Today, in his 30s, he has profound intellectual disability and is functioning at a level similar to a NT 1 year old. The only words he says is "Aba!" and screams and has absolutley no spoken language. He has no eye contact. He does not have low functioning autism as his cousins claimed to though he acts like and resembles a low functioning Kanner autistic person. For example, he likes Disney World a lot (I have went on vacation with him and his family alongside mines a couple of times) and he has to go on his favorite rides first otherwise he gets very mad and throws his shows at people. Also, during the only other times I see him, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Midnight Parties, he would walk away from the rest of the social crowd and just stand and rock near the TV. Sometimes on the TV, they put Disney Sing Along Videos just for my cousin, which he likes a lot especially this video
He also likes flapping papers and taking papers from literally every place he sees them and flaps it in his hand like a Japenese person would do with a Japanese fan. He also has a little of physical issues, for example his skin is sensitive to antibacterial soap and throws up more than usual and also eats fast like a Vacuum cleaner.

Honestly I have no idea. I've met two low functioning autistics but never thought about much.

They are smarter than more people give credit for, as I've seen one steal from a teacher before (keys to her desk) to get crackers. I suspect it wouldn't be as different as the way most of us experience autism, just the communication difficulties are more real. But I learned how to speak didn't I? So can they.

When I was in middle childhood, I knew a very low-functioning kid. He had no speech, he constantly stimmed and/or spun things, and was not toilet-trained. He did understand some of what you said. You had to watch him, lest he run away.

He never acquired speech. I'm not sure about the toilet-training. I hear he lives in a group home. He would be 54 years old now.

Based on personal observation: Basically lfa people operate independently of others and have to be coaxed to acknowledge others and respond to them. They require assistance with daily activities like washing, dressing, eating etc. They are prone to self harm such as hitting or banging their heads and sometimes need to wear a bicycle helmet for protection. I think most with lfa, even if intellectually disabled, are smart in ways they often do not project.

The one who needed to wear a bicycle helmet in my family was another one of my relatives who is like 7 years old and has epilepsy, servere intellectual disability, and ADHD. That kid even had a part of his brain removed surgically and is still in a stoller at age 7. When I saw him as a guest at my cousin's Christmas day/night party a few weeks ago, he jumped out of his stroller. When he did, he was rolling around doing somersaults on the floor head first, banging his head, running around the house wildly, when his mother timed him out in the toyroom of my cousins house, the kid kept running out of the toyroom sweeping with a toy broom in a hyperactive way and almost bit and hit me. Even my 30something profoundly intellectually disabled PDD cousin is chill and mild compared to that boy never mind the serverley autistic man in the video below, who is about my age. As you can see, he is much wrose than even that epileptic,hyperactive, and intellectually challanged 7 year old relative. That 20 yo serverly autsitic man is like destruction incarnate.
Even my 30something cousin with PDD and profound intellectual disability may have a lower intellectual capacity than these two persons I talked about. In my cousin's house, he would just stand next to the big TV watch Disney Christmas sing alongs and only says "Aba!" and screams. But he just stands there and is peaceful comapred to the two people I talked about.
I also had memories from my elementary school days, that one of my classmates had what i guessed moderate to servere Kanner Autism and speaks a little more words but not a lot. For example, he would frequently say "Barney!", "Baby Bop!", or "BJ!". I remember every time we would enter the classroom, like after lunch, recess, or filed tip, the Mod-servere Kanner type kid would gallop on his feet around the circle over and aover again, flap his hands, and say, "AAAAAAAH!" in the same way a sheep would go "BAAAA!" That's just about all of his vocabulary. He also farts alot and would slap people. He even hit me and bit my friend. But he was not as bad as my 7 year old epileptic,hyperactive,and intellectually challanged relative nor the big 20 year old man serverly autistic man in the video above.

By the way, I also saw a girl with Rett Syndrome, a rare form of autism, in a motorized wheelchair during lunch at my school. Her teachers had a hard time feeding hewr and used a tube to feed her. She also had tantrums, convulsions, and would lose her temper like every second. She would also spit out food, hold her breath, and fart so loud and badly that even I, about 60 feet away from her with the large Cafeteria echo, could her and even smell the fart. I freaked out.
When I was in 4th and 5th grade, I remember a student who had moderate to low functioning Kanner Autism, was obsessed with Barney, but spoke a little more. He would say scentences like "Uh on, Oh no, Parachute Baby Bop!" I also knew him for stealing and the teachers and his aide would always check his pockets. He even stole a Barney Movie Book from the school library without checking it out. But when he behaved good for the week, every Friday, a teacher or teacher's aide would pack a bag full of goodies for him like Milk, snack, and little Barney things. He was obsessed with barney a lot and would even check it out on his computer. But he actually had above normal intelligence and would do well on Current Events, social studies, and math assignments. He even got Bs on his work. So in terms of intelleigence, it was not that bad. So IQ is not a good way to test functioning levels in autistic people like other developmental disabilities, like Down's syndrome functioning is dependent on IQ. Autism toyally stands out of every other developmental disability in terms of how functioning is judged. There could be someone with moderate to low functioning autism and actually have the same general IQ as Albert Einstien. It is just that they can't communicate it.
By the way, when I went to New York this past May, I saw a leftover poster of a low functioning Autistic man who went missing and a big search tried to find him but unfourtanetly failed. But I only saw that poster in the subways because that LFA man actually had a super smart talent in subways throughout NYC. So since they knew he liked subways, they put posters there.

I was placed in a autistic home for 2 years when I was a teenager. There were 5 who where autistic, two aspergers and one Down's syndrome. Every person there I could have a conversation with, mixed age group from 20 into there late 40s. I would get asked me how my day went, and lift my spirits. It was a relaxed atmosphere in the house. There were disagreements but things were usually quickly resolved. Lunch would be at 2 and dinner at 6 and there were amusing events around the table. Then everybody went to there rooms and went about there day the next day. It was a care home and everybody in the house had there own daily activities for the day. And are active people.

Many people, doctors, and teachers think PDD-NOS is "mild autism" or "moderate autism" or "better than Kanner Autism but not as good as Aspergers". But actually PDD-NOS means that you have a touch of autism or you are kind of autistic but does not have enough symptons to meet the criteria for an autism spectrum disorder, mainly Kanner Autism. That does not mean it is milder than Kanner Autism. For exmple, Atypical Autism, which is another name for some cases of PDD-NOS, has a seesaw effect. This means that one deficit can be mild, managable by the patient himself, rare, and just about non exsistent, another deficit can be debilitating and pervasive. For example, in my case I am very sociable but have soo many problems with Repetitive and Steryotipical Behaviors that I developed comorbid OCD with it. That could be the same thing for individual cases of PDD-NOS in terms of functioning. One case can be mild or even milder, being just as mild as Aspergers, the other could be servere and very low functioning. For example, both me, who is high functioning, and my profoundly intellectually challanged cousin, both share the same diagnosis, PDD-NOS. But my cousin is on the borderline of having autism but he is functionally too young to perform or discriminate a significant number of symptons for Kanner Autism. What I mean on the borderline is that he has just a few symptons of Kanner Autism, being on the border between Autistic and non-Autistic much like the US-Mexican border. Though my cousin's caregivers claim he is low functioning Kanner Autism, i say he is "On the Border" of having Autism, like the restaraunt. PDD-NOS, can also be moderate to low functioning like the Classically Kanner Autistic Kid but has another comorbid condition, like Angelman Syndrome, which comes with being hyper sociable, that would compromise the kid from officially meeting the criteria for Classic Kanner Autism. Also, it can also be possibly correct that a patient similar the violent sereve autistic man in one of my posts above, could also be PDD-NOS. For PDD-NOS can be like that 20 yo violent serverly autistic kid in one of my posts above, but the autistic symptons began at a later age after 3 (ie because of regression at the age of 6 that is NOT CDD).

Nicely said gold tails

I think Im milder than aspergers because I can be social but I'm ocd on some fee things like politics so thats why I consider myself borderline ASD/PDD NOS that I don't fit AS completely. I'm ambivert mostly, I like movies and partying more than learning. Politics is my special interest, I onky stim when alone.

I know close to nothing about cases of Low-Functioning Autism but I can tell you a little about my personal experience, I'm an AS after all, although not your expected AS case per se.

From by newborn first week until my Late childhood, entering puberty, my AS was so extreme that even before I was diagnosed as an ADHD I was deem ineducable, to the point where the most prominent neurologist in the entire south east zone at the time crudely told my parents to start teaching a simple, menial job since completing elementary school was a only a fantasy. About 90% of the AS characteristic symptoms and comorbid disorders I had them at its peak most MD's used to called me a perfect DCM-IV Asperger.

If it wasn't for very intense therapy of all kinds I wouldn't have gone past 4th grade. Funny part is that when we shifted to another Neurologists she noticed something strange therefore contacting a bit more than a dozen MD's specialist to check me out, they did charged my parents a pretty penny, and it turned out to be I'm one of the rare genetic lottery winners with an intellect they could not measure with standard tests and there are only about other 30,000 guys with my natural capacity out there.

Currently I'm living alone and double majoring in Mathematics & Physics on an Accelerated Program, Authorized to do an extra year to get my Masters on a Top Notch University and might as well take the double Major in Chemistry & Biology after this one.

However this just came out of sheer luck I was born with an outstanding capacity, surely nowhere close to average, but most likely if we didn't found that other neurologist I would be really be F'd up. As far as I can remember I used to feel trapped within myself, but in that I found comfort, the outer world din't make any sense and surely didn't had any order. Although I could engage in a conversation with my parents siblings and grandparents, any other person would only get a monosyllabic answer, if they got lucky maybe a well built sentence.

In conclusion I made it out, had I not I would be back at home being taken care of by a few maids and drivers and having no option but to live of my family's money until I died, instead I'm perfect shape and living alone in my apartment without maids nor drivers.

I mostly know about Aspergers and its comorbids since that's my diagnosis, sorry if the info is not what you looked for I hope you find something useful in it.