Neurodiversity
The label sounds like a compliment. In practice, it's often used to explain away a child's very real struggles.
A parent once told me that the most confusing thing anyone had ever said to her was: 'Your son is high-functioning, so he should be fine in a mainstream classroom.' She had spent four years watching him come home from school and fall apart. She was being told he was fine.
'High-functioning' is one of those labels that sounds like good news and operates like a closed door. It tells you what someone can appear to do. It says nothing about what it costs them.
“A child who can mask their way through a school day is not a child without needs. They are a child expending enormous energy on survival, with nothing left for learning.”
What the label actually measures
In most contexts, 'high-functioning' is a shorthand for: appears to cope in environments designed for neurotypical people. It measures performance in those environments, not wellbeing. It measures output, not cost.
The child who sits quietly and completes their work and does not appear to need anything is not necessarily thriving. They may be masking, performing neurotypical behaviour so convincingly that the adults around them stop looking. And when adults stop looking, needs go unmet.
What we should be asking instead
- What is this child's experience of the school day, in their own words?
- What does their behaviour at home tell us about the cost of coping at school?
- What would change if we stopped asking 'can they manage?' and started asking 'what would help them flourish?'
- Are we supporting this child, or are we relieved that they don't require support?
The label 'high-functioning' needs to go. Not because it is never used with good intentions, but because good intentions are not enough when the effect of the label is to make a child's real struggles invisible. Every child who comes home from school and falls apart deserves an adult who is still asking questions.
Neurodiversity
A note on accuracy:While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this article is accurate at the time of writing, facts, policies and research can change. We're human, and sometimes we get things wrong. If you spot something that needs updating, we'd genuinely love to hear from you.
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Dave Harrison
ESW · Neurodiversity Advocate · Podcast Host
Dave Harrison is currently working in Australian schools as an Education Support Worker. He's the founder of THRVHUB, host of the Different Is Normal podcast, and a parent of a neurodivergent teenager, writing from both sides of the classroom.
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