The CDC is reporting( http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6103a1.htm?s_cid=ss6103a1_w ) a newer, really scary increase in the number of kids affected with Autism. At least, that's what I think the headlines and PSAs are going to start saying sometime soon. (There's a string of television commercials currently running that compares odds of doing certain things vs the odds of a child's autism diagnosis--and these were 1 in 110 ratios.)
Reading the recent report, there's a line that should not be ignored, and I'm afraid it will be, given the way we love a good old-fashioned hysteria. The sentence is presented very early on in the report:
"Because the ADDM Network sites do not make up a nationally representative sample, these combined prevalence estimates should not be generalized to the United States as a whole."
It is echoed deeper in the body copy:
"...the surveillance areas were not selected to be representative of the United States as a whole, nor were they selected to be representative of the states in which they are located."
The report doesn't spend time discussing changes or stretches in the definition of ADS. Simply:
"Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and by restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior."
By that definition, any child who doesn't seem to 'fit in' qualifies.
I'm not kidding. Read Ben Nugent's piece in the NY Times.
We are playing with children's lives here. Such a soft definition risks nurturing an overreaction, a backlash. One that pits people dismissing any proven spike in autism levels as being manufactured against those faced with dealing with ASDs every day, as already seen here:
These are d3ac0n's remarks mid-thread, excerpted to underscore my point:
""Quirky" is when a kid likes to wear silly hats, or insists on wearing tights with everything, or like to dance and sing at not always appropriate times. That's quirky.
"Quirky" is NOT being unable to dress yourself properly or being unable to BATHE yourself, or sitting on your bed making moaning and grunting noises while rocking back and forth and flipping through toy magazines and then stripping your clothes off and shredding your underwear into teeny tiny bits before having a poop accident and then smearing it all over yourself and your walls. At 11 years old. THAT is Autism. Not "Quirky"."
Stretching definitions helps no one.
It only makes fire burn hotter.