Caveat on the statistic that autism is up considerably

[Steve Martines]

It was under-diagnosed 20 years ago:

However, experts such as Wiznitzer and Goldstein are concerned that the new CDC report is not describing the same autism that was present and diagnosed 20 years ago, when the numbers first shot up.

"Twenty years ago we thought of autism with intellectual disability. We never looked at children who had normal intelligence" -- doctors never considered that high-functioning children had autism too, says Goldstein.

The number of children with autism is too high and should be addressed. However, it is unclear whether the actual autism rate is higher than it was 20 years ago, since a large chunk of children (i.e. those with normal intelligence) were ignored back then.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/health/cdc-autism/

[haele]

1. The new face of Autism - kids that used to be considered normal but for being weird or slackers.

When the spectrum had been extended to include those who are functional but on the margins, then yes, you'll have more kids diagnosed (hopefully properly) with Autism.

Whether or not children on those levels actually need to be "treated" rather than being given tools to better suited to adapt their unique condition with the rest of the world is another story.

Treating a kid because they act like a kid that is frustrated, confused, or doesn't understand what is going on is not what diagnosis of Autism should be about.

Haele

[TexasTowelie]

2. My nephew has autism and it will render him as unemployable as an adult.

He is a teenager and can barely form four to five word sentences plus he is prone to rages of anger and other socially inappropriate behavior. When he was diagnosed the statistics indicated that about 1 out of 160 were affected and now the statistics are at 1 out of 87. The fact that so many people are being diagnosed as having autism while they also show normal or near-normal intelligence trivializes the issue and will most likely affect whether he will be able to receive government aid in the future when he is an adult.

I know that autism is not a trivial matter, but I believe that some parents may be taking advantage of the situation for some reason.

[Trillo]

3. It's the canary in the mineshaft.... NT