high-functioning

See also: high functioning

English

From high +‎ functioning.

high-functioning (comparative more high-functioning or higher-functioning, superlative most high-functioning or highest-functioning)

Functioning or operating at a high level.
- 1978, Allen E. Bergen with Sol Louis Garfield, Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change: An Empirical Analysis, New York: Wiley, →ISBN, page 944:
  The high-functioning therapists were found to have a greater tendency to confront patients and, when they did so, confronted them with their resources.
(psychology) Of a person with a developmental or intellectual disability or mental illness, able to function in society; not greatly affected by a disability or illness.
- 1986 January, R.M. Fox, D.R. Bechtel, C. Bird, J. Livesay, R. Bittle, “A comprehensive institutional treatment program for aggressive-disruptive high functioning mentally retarded persons”, in Behavioral Residential Treatment, volume 1, number 1, →ISSN, pages 39–56:
  A unit wide behavioral programming system for high functioning mentally retarded clients who displayed maladaptive behavioral excesses...
(psychology) Of a person with autism, exhibiting relatively high cognitive function.
- 1996 August, Don J. Siegel, Nancy J. Minshew, “Wechsler IQ profiles in diagnosis of high-functioning autism”, in Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, volume 26, number 4, →ISSN, page 400:
  Analysis of Wechsler IQ test scores for high-functioning autistic children and adults with Verbal and Full Scale IQ≥70 only partially supports previous contentions about the presence of a distinct profile of scores in autism.

Many members of the autistic community have criticized or outright rejected the label high-functioning and its coordinate term low-functioning.^[1]^[2] The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network considers it a "harmful oversimplification" to conflate high support needs or nonverbalness with lower intelligence.^[1] The terms high-masking and low-masking have emerged as descriptors for masking level.^[3] High-support and low-support are sometimes used for care needs.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, "Functioning Labels Harm Autistic People", December 9, 2021
^ Jessica L. Penot, "Why Many People With Autism Dislike Functioning Labels", Psychology Today, August 23, 2022
^ Caitlin Pagán, "For Many Autistic Women, High Masking Leads to Long-Term Burnout", Verywell Health, October 17, 2024