There have been so many good answers in this thread, I have been hesitant to add more, but: a label is a description of a pattern of behavior. In the context of the original question, it is shorthand for a particular pattern of weaknesses which are known to be helped by certain types of accommodations. You could forego the label and let everyone who meets your child have to rediscover for himself or herself what those patterns and remediations are, but that's a slow and inefficient process full of frustration and try-and-fail. It directs people to the right paths to reduce or eliminate fails painful, time-wasting, and unnecessary fail cycles. The label keeps everyone from having to reinvent the wheel, or at least helps everyone in delivering new and better wheels.
