Autism, language, and identity. Part 1.

I will raise my hand in shame. As a clinician, I have not always considered the effect that the words I choose. My reports were full of “impaired communication skills”, “limited ability”, “low-level skills”. And I felt quite free to use these labels because my clients would not be the ones to read my reports. If my report was directed to my client, the language would be different. So at least on some level, I recognised how negative these labels are. Yet I used them about people who as speech and language therapist I truly care for.

And then suddenly my world changed. And with my world my perception changed too.

Over the last year my family have all received the label of “Autistic Spectrum Disorder”…