If I were growing up today, I'd have had the ASD label slapped on me as soon as I entered public school. Instead, I grew up 30 years ago, when my "uniqueness" was not just tolerated, but appreciated and nurtured by my teachers and parents. Did I have problems? Yes. Did I grow up into a successful, happy adult? Also yes.

It really bothers me that the ASD label is now being used as a means to "rehabilitate" students that fall outside what is considered "normal" childhood development. People in authority look at these differences as problems which must be corrected, rather than an opportunity to enrich the classroom environment with people of different viewpoints and perspectives. I see some online communities for parents of kids with ASD, where parents ask things like, "My daughter has SO MANY collections! Little rocks, candy wrappers, everything! And they all have their own bags and if I disturb any of them she goes nuts! How do I deal with this? How do I manage her collecting?"

You don't MANAGE it, you let it be. She's a child with precious objects and she likes to sort them. This is not a "problem" to be "solved." It's something your daughter loves to do, and there's value in it for her. Maybe this is an opportunity to adjust your own perspective.

It's no surprise to me that the more people are diagnosed with ASD, the more people are diagnosed with ASD. The more you segregate people with certain traits, the more you're going to notice other people with those same traits, and decide it's time to label them, too.

I'm not saying kids with autism don't need help. A lot of them do. Some of them need assistance just going about their daily lives. And they should get the help they need. But a lot of kids DON'T need help, at least not the labeling kind. They just need adults to be flexible and understanding. What we're doing instead is crafting an education system that is inflexible and absolute. If you don't check boxes X Y and Z, clearly you're doing it wrong and you need to be corrected.