Autism-World

When you hear people claim autism has increased 60 fold or more, they are comparing old, underestimated rates with the modern, more complete rates.

I think my neice would have been labeled “brain damaged” or “retarded” 50 years ago. I suspect many family doctors wouldn’t label a child autistic because family doctors back then actually knew the families. Autism used to be blamed on uncaring mothers and if a doctor knew the mother was loving, he would rule out autism.

Add to that the fact that in the late 80s or early 90s, “Asperger’s” was added to the spectrum. Currently, about 60 – 88% of all kids diagnosed with autism have Asperger’s. These kids would have just been labelled “odd”, 30 years ago.

But a recent study from the M.I.N.D. institute supports the idea that even when you take into consideration all the factors I’ve listed above, there still seems to be an increase. Not 600% increase. More like a 50 to 100% increase.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Definition of Autism.