Some autistic people prefer person first language (being called "a person with autism" or "a person with Asperger's). Many, however, prefer identity first language ("Autistic person" or "Aspie"). No matter the person's perspective, it is important to use the language that they prefer. This in an introduction to the reasons why many people on the spectrum prefer identity first language. (One of the keys they cite for not wanting 'person first' is "If you have to say person first in order to SEE the person first, that's a bigger problem that needs to be overcome.")
The Logical Fallacy of Person First Language, by Musings of an Aspie
The problems with person first language have been talked about extensively in the autistic community. Many autistic people have expressed a strong, explicit preference for identity first language. And yet, we’re still treated to comments like this one (paraphrased from a comment on another blog):
"I work with children with autism and I always say child with autism because they’re children first and autism doesn’t define them. Also, I say typically developing child instead of normal, because normal has negative connotations. Words are important–they reflect how you think."
My first reaction to reading that type of comment is always, “aren’t the typically developing children also children first?”
Or do we just not need to be reminded that they’re children? READ MORE
The problems with person first language have been talked about extensively in the autistic community. Many autistic people have expressed a strong, explicit preference for identity first language. And yet, we’re still treated to comments like this one (paraphrased from a comment on another blog):
"I work with children with autism and I always say child with autism because they’re children first and autism doesn’t define them. Also, I say typically developing child instead of normal, because normal has negative connotations. Words are important–they reflect how you think."
My first reaction to reading that type of comment is always, “aren’t the typically developing children also children first?”
Or do we just not need to be reminded that they’re children? READ MORE
Dear Autism Parents by Just Stimming
I want to clear a couple of things up.
1. I don’t have autism. I am autistic. This is important to me. It also doesn’t mean that I “see myself as a disability first and a person second,” whatever that is supposed to mean. In my eyes, I’m Julia. Just Julia.
I cannot separate out which parts of me brain are wired because baby I was born this way and which parts of my brain should be marked off as AUTISM. Nor do I particularly care, to be honest. I am Julia, and a significant fraction of Julia is autism (and thus, via the transitive property, I am autism but that’s not the point). Am I a writer because I’m Julia, or because I’m autistic? My writing is good in its own right, I am told, and it’s also fundamentally shaped by my neurology–just like yours. I like Glee and Phineas and Ferb and also Sudoku. Am I allowed to have a personality and preferences, or just perseverations? Is my deeply and inconveniently round-about, pedantic, literal, and analytic way of thinking and using language a sign of a what a profoundly gifted child you were, Julia (and you know, no one ever tells the kids in the gifted programs that they see themselves as gifted first and human second, or that they should call themselves “persons who experience a label of giftedness”) or is it a symptom of some monster hiding in my neurons? READ MORE
I want to clear a couple of things up.
1. I don’t have autism. I am autistic. This is important to me. It also doesn’t mean that I “see myself as a disability first and a person second,” whatever that is supposed to mean. In my eyes, I’m Julia. Just Julia.
I cannot separate out which parts of me brain are wired because baby I was born this way and which parts of my brain should be marked off as AUTISM. Nor do I particularly care, to be honest. I am Julia, and a significant fraction of Julia is autism (and thus, via the transitive property, I am autism but that’s not the point). Am I a writer because I’m Julia, or because I’m autistic? My writing is good in its own right, I am told, and it’s also fundamentally shaped by my neurology–just like yours. I like Glee and Phineas and Ferb and also Sudoku. Am I allowed to have a personality and preferences, or just perseverations? Is my deeply and inconveniently round-about, pedantic, literal, and analytic way of thinking and using language a sign of a what a profoundly gifted child you were, Julia (and you know, no one ever tells the kids in the gifted programs that they see themselves as gifted first and human second, or that they should call themselves “persons who experience a label of giftedness”) or is it a symptom of some monster hiding in my neurons? READ MORE
Identity First Language
ASAN intern Lydia Brown originally published this article on her blog Autistic Hoya under the title The Significance of Semantics: Person-First Language: Why It Matters.
At the Adult Services Subcommittee’s final meeting last Wednesday, much to do was made about semantic disagreements — “ASD individual” versus “individual with ASD,” and of course, the dreaded “person with autism” or “person who has autism” versus “autistic person.” These issues of semantics are hot button issues, and rightfully so. READ MORE
ASAN intern Lydia Brown originally published this article on her blog Autistic Hoya under the title The Significance of Semantics: Person-First Language: Why It Matters.
At the Adult Services Subcommittee’s final meeting last Wednesday, much to do was made about semantic disagreements — “ASD individual” versus “individual with ASD,” and of course, the dreaded “person with autism” or “person who has autism” versus “autistic person.” These issues of semantics are hot button issues, and rightfully so. READ MORE
