The “mild autism” label is very harmful, poisonous, and should be either discarded or handled with extreme caution. (A Singapore doctor cautioned me against this “labeling” risk.)

Q: Is there some children mental health system issue in the U.S.? Are U.S. doctors too eager to issue labels?

Perhaps a kid shows some signs similar to autism, but he doesn’t deserve the label. Doctors have an enormous amount of public authority, due to their professional status. Once a doctor assigns a negative label on a child, it’s hard for another doctor to remove it. The label tends to be attached to him for years and years.

Teachers and parents (authority!) need to be extremely careful with negative labels.

I was labeled multiple minor labels in my younger years so I know how it felt. I always envied my “normal” classmates, those without labels. They often have their problems as teenagers, but they don’t talk about it as I do[3], so I assumed they were label-free kids.

One label/stigma is — repeating a year.

[3] My dad always cautioned me. I tend to say “seeking help is true resilience”. However, to some Chinese people, seeking professional help is a negative label by itself.