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"The percentage of kids with autism in the United States continues to rise, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report found that, in 2014, an estimated 1 in 59 children had autism, up from 1 in 68 children in 2012, and 1 in 88 children in 2008. The findings are based on data from more than 300,000 8-year-old children living in 11 diverse communities across the United States.

A previous CDC report, released in 2016, suggested that the autism rate, or prevalence, was leveling off, but the new report shows that this is not the case."

"The rate of 1 in 59 children (1.7 percent) with autism is the combined estimate for the 11 communities, which were in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. However, estimates varied widely among these 11 communities, from a low of 1 in 76 (1.3 percent) in Arkansas, to a high of 1 in 34 (1.9 percent) in New Jersey.

Some of these differences might be due to how autism is being diagnosed and documented in those areas, the CDC said."

[livescience.com]

Angelface 7 Apr 26
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15 comments

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0

They were just called weird kids in my day not politically correct however.

1

I think it has s lot to do with pollution in our air, water and food...

3

Hi everyone! Like many many others I'm a proud parent of a child with Autism...the growing number of children diagnosed with Autism is overwhelming and leaves most of us perplexed...I don't think there is one answer. It is likely a multitude of factors which contribute to the growing numbers. This includes: education/awareness of disorder, the broadening of symptoms associated, the decreased stigma causing more parents to seek a diagnosis, increased medical/mental health care acrossed the population in it's entirety, unclear, unbounded criteria for diagnosing, the number of healthcare professors deemed capable of diagnosing, and last but surely not the least...the need to have a diagnosis inorder for a child to receive the services he or she is deemed to need for his/her success...there needs to be a diagnosis attached so the occupational and physical therapist as well as the speech pathologist and behavioral specialist can all get paid, and so the school districts can be reimbursed by state and federal governments...as a parent of a child on the "spectrum" I can say for sure that there is a difference between the way in which my son perceives and expresses things when compared to the average 12 year old, I can not deny the struggles he has experienced academically, nor the anger and frustration he has experienced, the classic inability for subject verb agreement, the hand flapping, the concrete cyclical thinking, the attentional issues and the hyper fixation, the pacing, the sleep disruption, clumsiness due to poor large motor skills, inability to tie shoes or instinctually pick up an eating utensil properly, anxiety and more anxiety...Autism is real, it is a profound neurological disorder, I would love to know how and why it exists but no one has the answer, so for now let's do what we can to educate, create awareness, for me increased diagnosis means an increased number of people seeking answers and solutions and helping to build a world that will include a broad range of "normal," even if ironically we achieve this by over using "abnormal"...btw my son is pretty happy, doing pretty well, he's funny and smart, articulate, to sit and speak to him you might not even guess that he has all the struggles he has, plays Judo, rides his bike, has friends ect

This. All of it.

1

The awareness, definition and rate of diagnosis are changing, and being expanded.

MsAl Level 8 Apr 26, 2018
0

Vacines may have something to do with it in studies vs. Monsaanto who manufactures the vacines. I documented this in an earlier post.

That is still being debated.

2

We know the autism rates in Flint are attribitutable to the water problem there. There have been a couple studies that found high lead levels in municipal water in many places. I have not seen any studies on whether this contamination has anything to do with autism rates in children but I'd be unsuprised if one found a link.

There's no proof in connection of "high lead levels" and Autism.

@tivesz [nih.gov]

@tivesz the syndrome is considered distinct from "true autism" yes but many of the symptoms are the same. The major difference is that kids with lead poisoning are more able to form social bonds.

@Blindbird Pretty much the two common side effects Autism and lead-poisoning in kids share, is irritability and learning difficulties, but Autism is genetic and can't be "caught", people are just born with it.

@tivesz people are born with it but no ones entirely sure what the root cause is and polllution is still in the running as a possible cause.

@Blindbird Sure, we don't know exactly what causes it, we can only hypothesize until we do. You can say pollution, I can say because of Gummi Bears. Both of our opinions have the same merit.

@tivesz except for the fact that places with higher pollution levels tend to have higher autism rates, sure. Don't know what your problem is but you sure are annoying with it.

@Blindbird Did not mean to come off as an arrogant douche, I am just a sucker for the truth. And the pollution hypotheses are still just...well...hypotheses.

2

My opinion: However jaded; I think its a matter of a few groups who are really good at writing requests for grants to study statistics on conditions that Big Pharma might be able to sink money into for meds and government lobbyists might make money on PAC contributions. Lets come up with a theory that Autism is on the rise and manipulate some stats to make it seem true! Yay!

So everything is always inflated? Are parents magnifying symptoms?

@Angelface Hmmm. Personally, I believe that there are many stages and types of Autism. I am not an expert of any thing, but take Asperger, for example, which I believe is a related form of Autism.

I just think there may be others, and perhaps some that are harder to diagnose, like the ADD/ADHD which has been around for a while. It seems that every few years researchers discover something new about how to treat it or what causes it or even how it is passed from family members. No one tries to look at it from all angles. I just think they each take one perspective, and it all boils down to who gets the money this week.

1

I'm not touching this subject with a 50 foot poll.

2

My son has autism and everyday is a struggle I like to think of it as a challenge. Like when the teacher says his hair is an issue, I told her if he was a girl this would not be a topic, or when the other people say inappropriate things. Look autism is here like any other disability and it up to people to learn to live with them.

6

Is the rate going up or is the diagnosis going up?

It sounds like with many issues that more knowledge equals more diagnoses.

9

It's not a question of diagnosis, but of definition. People don't "have" autism, it's not a disease, but they can only process sensory input in ways that fall somewhere on the autistic spectrum. It's a different way of being in a world that doesn't appreciate differences.

1

I wonder when the cause or causes will be discovered.

Natural variation and diversity in human animals mabey..

As a friend tells me, her son has a series of complex brain disorders in how his brain processes or doesn't process. He is extremely smart but has certain habits or rituals that can either sooth or upset.

2

There is evidence that the age of the father is correlated with an increasing risk for autism in the child. As men age, their risk of having a child with autism increases as well. [spectrumnews.org]

Correlation isn’t causation.

@ArturoS Yes, I understand that correlation and causation are not the same thing. But evidence of correlation can lead to a search for causation. The hypothesis (the question posed as a test for a possible cause) is that as men age, their sperm may deteriorate and allow small mutations to occur. There's more detail provided in the article that I cited.

6

Great. Here come the anti-vaxxers again. 😟

It's barking isn't it !!! sorry about the pun it really is bonkers..

@icolan I cannot stand anti-vaxxers. Psychology was one of my majors in college. It's not that there are more cases of autism, it's that it's recognized more. Psychiatrists understand it a lot better now than what they did 40 years ago or even 20 years ago. Just like there aren't more people with bipolar today than 20 years ago. Just recognized more easily.

12

This is common
"Some of these differences might be due to how autism is being diagnosed and documented in those areas, the CDC said."
When more people learn how to diagnose something, you see an increase in it, not because it increased but because more people are able to diagnose it.

That is my thought. The definition of what constitutes Autism has expanded to include traits and behaviors it didn't before.

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