I myself have autism, but I don't let this bother me. It used to at first, but I managed to grow thicker skin towards it. The way I see it, its the internet and it shouldn't be taken seriously. Mine is also high functioning so I'm probably on the same if not similar spectrum as your child. Growing up I've had people call me retarded in a derogatory context, and there was no severe punishment for it in school. It taught me that I need to have thicker skin and not allow a childish insult get in the way of what really matters. Even if the word autism heads towards this direction, its just people being ignorant. I mean, look at the word gay. That's even used in derogatory context, For instance, if I call a plant gay or say that plant looks really gay, does that really mean the plant is happy or homosexual? No. Its being used out of its original context. And how can an in inanimate object look homosexual or be happy? It makes no sense. My point is, the internet mixes autism with down syndrome, which is a completely separate disorder, and that has also fallen into the insult category on forums unfortunately. My advice to you OP is let people remain ignorant or stupid. You would just be wasting your time trying to educate them, and don't take them seriously. I don't think most people here have any real ill hatred like that, and if they do, then they are losers, and you shouldn't waste your time with losers. /thread