Phalanges Mycologist
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2021
Chris is between low and high functioning.
He can talk, drive, operate machinery, buy groceries.
As I said he's mid functioning, he can do all those things as you said but you need to qualify it with Poorly.
On a scale of 1 to 100 where one is totally non functional and 100 is a high achieving person with autism and 50 is a socially functional individual Chris is about 40 to 45. In most developed parts of the world Chris wouldn't even be considered for a driving licence and purely from the outside looking in it's really weird but I can understand why he's got one (i.e. location and distance he needs to travel for basic necessities etc) and I'd like to know how he qualified for a licence in the first place and was there any special considerations given to him getting one as from what I've been told he drives like a old woman i.e. slow and steady but often misjudges distances etc leading to a lot of minor bumps etc.
He can talk but his speech patterns are erratic and his vocal control is lacking, if he has to talk past some learned points he has to pause and think about what he's going to say often for non complex subjects and often loses his train of thought. He often has to rehearse what he says and uses padding words or sounds to buy him time ( this used to be a common speech therapy technique I think) He also uses phrases out of context as he believes it means something else and will automatically be understood by others the way he does and when they don't he get's smug and feels superior.
The Groceries thing is hard to quantify, Chris will spend money on toys and other non essentials before he thinks about food Chris isn't incapable of buying food but he chooses to subsist off fast food and tinned / microwave meals (a lot of people do this so no real shade can be cast on chris for that) but I'd say if the instructions are more complex than open tin and put in pan he's incapable of basic meal preparation let alone anything healthy or balanced and I think that's why he relys on fast food and the whole Barb refused to cook thing was just a convenient excuse for him (and for barb as well to do less) to not learn to a new skill.
Chris is a weird scatter shot of abilities and level of functioning, he can do X so people assume he can do Y but he can't and can barely do X with any level of competency.