To think autism gets worse with each generation

Yep. What a pair of gullible fuckwits.

It does seem that way in our family

Myself diagnosed as a adult
Oh diagnosed as an adult.

Each have a dd from a previous both girls are autistic but very able and don't require much addition support outside social skills.

We then had 2 children together.
Ds autistic and is academically behind. Also has PDA unable to access a mainstream school or curriculum must be taught in a play based way. Requires full time care and when was in school very much was on a minimum of 2 staff to him ratio. And struggling to find a provision that can meet his needs due to the PDA

Dd (Youngest) autistic with global development delay. She is non verbal. In a special provision

We never suspected any of the children until after the youngest was born. We certainly would never of had the youngest if we had suspected our son. Both oh and I wasn't diagnosed until after the children were either

Not sure its worse. Decades ago, boys would've been put in borstal, girls would've been slapped into submission and masked thereon.
I think people just accepted quirks back then amd didn't seek to label people. Severe autism i suspect people would've been put into some kind of learning disability home, amd God knows what happened then.

I don’t think children have less boundaries now. Children used to be able to wander about by themselves, it’s far more rigid now.

I think today's children have so few boundaries and autistic children struggle with that. Boundaries have got more lax as the generations have gone on. Life today is also frenetic and multi-sensory.

The reason I struggle with this a bit is it suggests that different brains are defective or malfunctioning. I appreciate where there are co morbid learning difficulties then one may say there was something that happened genetically that was not ' optimal' ( I have no idea which word to use here that isn't offensive and horrible).
There are many people that are ND that I would see as superior thinking in multiple aspects. Alot of the difficulty arises in trying to operate in a system which is actually fucking nuts. Excuse my language.
I am NT yet see how nuts this school system is and always has been. Actually, it's probably even worse now. I worry about societal norms and expectations and then impose that on my own child sometimes.

I recently felt very upset with all the struggles my child has at school. In my mind I look at being Autistic as the issue. I wouldn't feel that way if the systems we lived in were not so rigid, completely ridiculous and robot conveyor belts. I'm triggered even talking about it 🤦🤣.

And I know the whole autism is a superpower is really annoyed and don't buy into that.

It’s interesting how resistant people are to the idea that autism might be on the rise and how insistent that it’s simply better diagnosis or less masking, when our understanding of then causes of autism is still fairly undeveloped- we know there’s a genetic element but we also know there’s more to it than that.

Having a disabled child is associated with significant additional household costs, and lack of access to suitable childcare, which frequently impacts adversely on maternal incomes. People are impoverished by disability given the lack of support, and the burden that falls on individual families. But here you two are happily stigmatising the families of disabled children.

I’ve definitely noticed this having worked with autistic children. I have noticed that their parents often also present as likely autistic but with fewer challenges, and more likely to “pass « as NT. I know of one family where there are now three generations (that I know of) of ASD, with subsequent generations having more severe problems.

I think this is the most likely answer, honestly.

And again with the diagnosis means we are rolling in benefits. My older son is 22 and can't go out on his own or be home alone - so yes, he does get high rate PIP, and I do have a car for him. I get Carers Allowance - that's £81.90 a week, woohoo! £81.90 for being his carer all day every day. Obviously I get more than that as I get UC, but even that has the carers allowance deducted as it is seen as income.

I don't get PIP myself, and my youngest wouldn't get DLA or PIP either (at the moment I still get child benefit for him and UC child part)

@Ceecee2422 but autism is known to be genetic, so unless every family member is ingesting the same things throughout history then that simply isn't the case.

For families where you can see autistic traits throughout all generations in living history whether they had a diagnosis or not that isn't environmental.

Air Quality is better in the UK now than it has been for generations.

Weren't there studies done years ago with silicone valley folks and marrying each other

Less masking as it becomes more acceptable?

I am in my early fifties. At my junior school of around 300 there one no one who had one to one support. One boy in my class would struggle with sitting still and was thus considered naughty. I think there was probably a lot of masking going on and more children in specialist schools.

And societal pressure was stronger. So acting out would be suppressed in previous generations. People, particularly women masked and it ‘came out’ in other ways- addiction, Valium, depression etc.

Look at the source of the info he is citing. It's impeccable. Always, always look at the source.

I think schools were harsher in punishments, conform or get smacked!

The masking would have been high. Kids were lonely and more likely to committed suicide - marriage was more transactional.

this is interesting and true in my case too.

It has many factors including environmental, many years ago I worked for a very intelligent pharmacist and he said cooking materials were a lot to do with different conditions, we are constantly ingesting different metals and plastics that we should not be and did not years ago, I would imagine these do play a large part in increasing numbers of different conditions, we also ingest large amounts of pollution on a daily basis, something that would not have happened years ago, all these things contribute to the body’s cells malfunctioning……

@Ineffable23 casual link? Or maybe you mean causal….

Are you comparing like with like though? Adults with autism will have developed some work arounds, built skills etc.

Couldn't agree more. How many parents out of thousands are really making a tonne out of their kids via YouTube; seriously.

Spot the people who do not have SEN kids.

I'd be extremely wary of Campbell. He is a well-known provider of COVID-19 misinformation, and the comments in the video about Donald Trump and RFK Jr. do rather suggest that this video is in the same vein.

"In the 1950’s Tv was only just invented and so children played outside in nature much more. They barely had any toys - just a few special ones.
They had to use their imagination a lot more than today.
School was basic, simple and with lots of playing time and not much homework."

I'd add that 'playing out' and having to walk everywhere was physically exhausting, and if you wanted food or drink, it was low in sugar and had no caffeine or other junk additives to hype you up.