Response to Humphrey's 'Are the Kids Alright?'

It seems that many parents have concerns about their child's current mental health and more broadly about their development and what kind of potential they have at school and beyond. In Neil Humphrey's article, "Are the Kids Alright? Examining the Intersection between Education and Mental Health," Humphrey offers some promising points of view from which to get clearer sight of some of the causes and consequences of this perceived crisis. In this response, Ben Aveyard develops Humphrey's question 'what do we mean when we talk about mental health?' with particular reference to autism, because it is the least slippery of the three constructs highlighted here as very much on parents' minds. Aveyard argues that conceptual muddle about mental health terms is ubiquitous, and he picks out some practical problems associated with this confusion. This response clarifies some of the reasons why this confusion (inevitably) arises and offers some prescriptions for resolving this kind of muddle. [For "Are the Kids Alright? Examining the Intersection between Education and Mental Health," see EJ1247696.]