idk if this is overstepping but i think implications of "early diagnosis is a privilege" are just as untrue for congenital and developmental physical disabilities just as they are for neurodevelopmental diagnoses like autism, ADHD, etc.
maybe it's true in a limited sense (your family having the finances or access to healthcare) but if that diagnosis has primarily been used as a tool to deny you agency, subject you to traumatic experiences, and otherwise as a free pass to subject you to violence, then is it really all that much of a privilege? ime having something on paper/in your records is what's beneficial in certain circumstances but it's not always necessary
i'm speaking as someone who was maybe technically early-diagnosed but also kinda not because both my parents and doctors acted like it wasn't a problem, it would just go away on its own, or i wasn't trying hard enough - my struggles got dismissed or ignored, while still being abused for being disabled at the same time, and even if it wasn't subtle it's not as it was necessarily invisible since it had a noted impact on my development + i'm left to pick up the pieces as an adult, struggle through healthcare myself to get treatment i should've gotten years ago
but that's a denial of personhood that is of a different shape than "you've been medically determined as [x], which means you're subhuman, which means i'm justified treating you as such" which while not being the explicit logic going on in people's heads (both medical practitioners and laypeople), that's the implication, on top of the fact that medical procedures, testing, hospitalization, etc. can all be traumatic in their own right even if medical abuse or neglect aren't occuring
and it's not as if it's a black-and-white thing either because early diagnosis certainly doesn't equate to not having your health struggles dismissed, ignored, or neglected, and i know that somewhat based off my own experience with psychiatric issues because i was formally diagnosed with ADHD at age 8 and my parents forgot it even happened (but i still got no treatment and abused by them for having symptoms even after they were reminded it happened)
unsure what my main point here is other than "early diagnosis and congenital disability don't just look like one thing, and being in either category doesn't mean you're taken seriously or treated well"
