Low and high end of the autistic spectrum

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Okay who is correct here:

My husband thinks the low end of the spectrum is high functioning and I think the low end means severe autism. He think the high end is the severe kind and the low end are the mild ones like me.

According to the following article, there is no low end or high end. Instead, each child will likely struggle in different areas and be more skilled at different things.

Autism Spectrum Disorders

I've always thought of the low end as the less severe, i.e. closest to not having it at all, or being "low on autism". At the high end you are highly autistic. (Also visually the low end is to the left, for me.)

But I can see why you think of it the way you do.

It is categorized as low functioning and high functioning. Low functioning is severe..high functioning is mild. I actually thought this over the other day also.

^^^I still think of low-functioning being at the high end of the spectrum.

I think it depends if you are referring to level of functioning or level of impairment. You are both right depending upon what "low" and "high" you are referring to.

I used think low functioning meant how mild you are on the spectrum and high functioning was how severe it is until I learned high functioning meant mild and how well you do with life. But high functioning seems to be a subjective word because I have seen people who claim to be high functioning but struggle badly with skills and I wonder how are they high functioning?

Maybe we are both right and good thing I didn't argue. I decided I would ask this when I get home to see who is right. I paused the argument by dropping it.

If I visualize autism as a spectrum, I see a multitude of traits that each has their own coordinate in a system, so each person is a mix of traits that may - in some people - be a mixture of "low-" and "high-functioning" traits.

Linguistically, I would assume that low means "low-functioning" and high means "high-functioning" just because of the word correlation, but that is not how I picture it.

I think that neither of you is wrong and that you're just looking at it in different ways, i.e. functioning level on a scale of low to high vs impairment level on a scale of low to high.

It definitely depends on how you define the spectrum. If you think about it in terms of how one functions, yes, the low and high end would correspond to how one functions on the spectrum while if you think about it in terms of severity, it low and high end would refer to how severe your symptoms appear. But it is a spectrum and Verdandi is right in that Autism should be viewed in a way that all patients are located on their own little spot on the spectrum, the spectrum itself is a catch-all or umbrella term for the currently different diagnoses anyway so it is more efficient to say that we're all Autistic but in our own ways, that's why the symbol for Autism is a puzzle in the first place.

key word is functioning. I dont see how low functioning could mean anything other than not being able to function properly.

I was taught that the lower end of the spectrum was severe/low-functioning Autistic, and the higher end was mild/high-functioning Autistic or AS. I was diagnosed with AS, and I am typically a mild Aspie too because I fit the description well, like being able to appear normal and able to express my feelings and having self-control and self-awareness and so on. Also I have average intellegence.

I have read somewhere that Aspies have average intellegence, where high-functioning Autistics and moderate Autistics have more higher intellegence, but I don't know if that is definately true, I just read it somewhere in a book.

I suppose that mean's I'm more highly autistic than you for example then; I'm above average intelligence but also much more socially inept than you describe. I'm learning; I suppose that is the advantage of being female is we have slightly more social grace. Slightly
I also have severe OCD which I think if definitely a spectrum problem

I have always suspected I was ''highly autistic'' rather than just a bit anyway. I have it from both sides. My father is autistic, both his parents were and my mother seems to possibly have aspects, and her brother is.

Where do you get it from???

So would most Aspies be considered ''mild''?? I don't think so, there must be a huge range

High functioning and mild aren't the same thing.

I find all the distinctions confusing

I do too. I find the term "high functioning Aspie" (or Aspergers) really confusing. Don't you have to be high functioning in the first place to receive a diagnosis of Aspergers?