Autism

[richlevy]

Well, my son has full blown autism/PDD. Noone knows what caused it, and I have heard too many theories at this point. While I applaud the research into the cause, I am much too focused in the here and now to really care too much.

Autism is on the rise. This could be because of better diagnosis, or, as someone pointed out, a more lax diagnosis.

There is a reason Autism is called a spectrum. Deciding where autism begins is like trying to pick the point in a spectrum where blue begins. It really involves a checklist of behaviors. Very high functioning people with autism might simply be labelled as socially inept or 'nerds'.


Here is a table from a report to the California legislature

Table 3 - Autism and the Other PDDs Compared
1987 1998 Percent Change
Autism (CDER Levels 1 & 2) 2,778 10,360 272.93%
Other PDD Types (CDER Level 4) 38 785 1,965.79 %
Autism Suspected, Not Diagnosed(CDER Level 9) 1,086 1,635 0.55 %