high-functioning

See also: high functioning

English

From high +‎ functioning.

high-functioning (comparative more high-functioning or higher functioning or higher-functioning, superlative most high-functioning or highest 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 persons with 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 persons with autism) Showing 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