Living on the Spectrum: Families Touched by Autism

Sep 17, 2015, by Dawn Gibson

Autism , Autism Spectrum Disorders, Autism Statistics

Are you one of the families touched by autism? If not, do you know someone who is? Autism is a spectrum disorder that is characterized by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) as:
Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts;
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities;
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (typically recognized in the first two years of life); and,
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning

Autism continues to trend toward epidemic proportions. It is becoming more and more rare to NOT know someone who is touched by autism. There is much debate about the why and how of autism. There are a lot of theories out there. Regardless of what theory you espouse for the cause(s) of autism, no one can deny the sky rocketing numbers over the last thirty years.

I started my first year of college, as a special education major, in 1986. During the following four years of college I took classes on how to teach children, philosophy of education, various subjects and curriculum, and a myriad number of classes about disabilities. I remember the professor briefly touching on autism. We didn't discuss autism often, because quite frankly, in the late 80's autism wasn't that prevalent. Statistics of autism in the 1980's, were approximately 1 in 10,000. How autism is currently diagnosed can explain only a small part of the change in numbers....but, it cannot possibly be the entire reason. In 1983 the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) did not recognize PDD-NOS or Asperger's syndrome, and the criteria for autistic disorder (AD) were more restrictive. In the 1990's the rate of autism was 1:2500 and then 1:1000, by the year 2000 it was 1:150, 2006 1:110, 2012 1:88, and now, in 2015 1:68. (Stats from: The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, through the CDC)

This trend is not acceptable. It should not be acceptable to anyone.