I am totally perseverating on the bizarre morphing, I'd say over the last year or so, of the term "autistic spectrum disorders", which has been around for YEARS, into "autism spectrum disorders", which is a grammar FIASCO. Why, oh WHY are people saying "autiSM spectrum"????

I implore ALL of you complicit in this - please stop saying that - it makes no SENSE! It's an adjective-noun combo, and the adjective "autistic" describes the noun "spectrum". "Autism" is NOT an adjective!! Therefore the phrase is NONSENSICAL!!!

Oh, and for all the terribly misguided people-first-language types, you don't make *any* sense either. An autistic person is no longer him/herself when stripped of autism, just as a woman is no longer herself if you strip her of her "female" adjective. And NO ONE'S adjective creates mutual exclusivity with any OTHER adjective that accurately defines the subject!! Quit it with the totally ignorant promotion of the idea that an adjective defines, with EXCLUSIVITY, any person. Either shut the fuck up, or modify your entire language structure to eliminate ALL adjective-noun combos. That means your kid can no longer be "smart", "clever", "cute", "African-American", "adorable", "challenging", "creative", "sensitive", "precocious", "sleepy", "hirsute", "blonde", "hungry", "artistic", "talented", or any other possible adjective that MIGHT potentially accurately describe him or her. Your child must now ALWAYS be "Timmy with blondeness", "Susan with sleepiness", "Sam with artisticness", "Julie with cleverness", "James with precociousness", "Sally with hirsutism", "Gerald with African-Americanism", "Deborah with sensitivity", etc.

See how stupid that is?

See how grammatically ridiculous that is?

P.S. I don't "suffer from autism" - I am autistic, and I only suffer from the ignorance of others.