To think if ASD is costing the UK 32bn per year we need to better early screening?

Yes this.
I know very few autistic children who are supported well in school, or CAMHS, or their families for that matter.
CAMHS for my autistic dc was a complete waste of resources and did nothing to help my dc.

Schools actively obstruct diagnoses and support.

How are the figures going with undiagnosed ND young men in prison?

Start support young. Overhaul the crap education system completely. I have no idea about funding amounts in the UK, but I do know that right now thousands of dc are damaged via schooling which may well affect their productivity in the future in this capitalist world.

I don’t know most of my family so I can’t really say. I’m the only one diagnosed with autism that I know of. I think the family that I do know would have Asperger’s, as they are extremely intelligent but mentally ill

That’s nice for those people. Not so nice for my friend whose DC are both autistic, close in age, and the second lad will never leave a care home where he has 2-1 most of the time. He may have preferred a bigger gap, in the hopes his second son would have an easier life.

There’s no point squabbling about minutiae. Everyone is using language their own way. One person’s struggle looks like another’s success

The point of early diagnosis wouldn’t be eugenics, but better understanding and strategies for helping the children. My life changed massively when I stopped using ‘traditional parenting’ techniques and did what’s probably now classed as child centred low demand parenting.

I ignored all the advice and rearranged the world until my child was a bit happier. He had intensive intervention, effectively, to help him cope and find his strengths and give him time to mature into the lovely man he is today.

He still wouldn’t consider a girlfriend, a new friend, a new hobby, a holiday, or anything else that isn’t essential. He’ll stay in the same job until the company closes down. He’ll live with us until we move away. At that point he’ll find somewhere else to live as that will be easier than finding a new job in a new place.

Some kids are trapped in situations where they aren’t understood, aren’t supported and enabled. It’s hell for them and everyone around them. Screening would go a fair way towards addressing that.

And you see no autism at all going back through your family like then? It's just came out of the blue?

This whole post is quite offensive to neurodiverse people who don't view being autistic as being a "problem"

I would like to see more work on genetics of autism.

I also agree with this. Watching families in obvious need fighting for the help required is a bloody crime.

Yes I'm not sure what is wrong with the comment. Is autism not supposed to make social interactions harder? It's literally in the diagnostic criteria.

Tied to radiators in institutions.

Schools when I was a kid were set up differently. Rows of desks facing the front with a lid to your own space and spaces either side of you. Very little choice available for kids and rigid routines. The world is different, busier and bigger now with a lot more stimulation and choice. It was easier to cope and to mask when I was at school because kids worlds were smaller.

I am autistic and I have read studies published by professionals in china (inconveniently for me, can’t link to them as don’t have them to hand) that suggest things going wrong in the womb can cause autism, including infections that the mother has that then cause the baby not to develop properly. I can’t confirm if it’s true or not, nor can I verify if the studies are real or not, I’m not qualified in any way. There are also studies that suggest that autism could partly be caused by environmental factors in combination to things going wrong in pregnancy

It's an enormous cost to screen every child when the incidence is something like 1 in 100, not to mention that there is a very real risk many cases will be missed and it offers false assurance and thinking that "my child's fine, I had them tested".

It's also 99 appointment times and costs that could be used to support children and other services.

You say parents might overlook it but 1) that can happen anyway and 2)parents do have a responsibility to advocate for their children. A counter argument could be that there should be a parenting test and if you score too low because I.e. you can't recognise and advocate for your child, then you can't have kids.

Just because something impacts social relationships, doesn't mean you can't have a marriage and a family, though

There's a reason why lots of ND people end up married to other ND people...

There is a whole lot of uneducated nonsense on this thread.

JFC, what a comment. Are you quite alright?!

I agree 100% with this. But yes, get your flameproof suit out.

How are we defining "functioning"?

Lots of people with autism go to work every single day and get through the week without any (visible) issues. But they then go home and melt down, or shutdown completely. On the surface, those people manage just fine.

Others can't cope with work and will melt down or get too overwhelmed to even make it through an hour or two in the work environment.

The former aren't necessarily coping any better than the latter, they just manage to keep the mask on for a bit longer, that's all.

Considering autism is supposed to massively impact social relationships, it is a bit surprising that so many have no trouble with relationships and having children.

Being successful in your career doesn’t mean you function well in life. I have family members who had seemingly “successful” careers however they absolutely couldn’t be described as functioning well in life.

Apologies, I think I misread your post. I thought you were saying the reverse 🤦‍♀️

Many would have been medicated and sent to live in care facilities for the rest of their lives. Others would go to "special schools" and then stay at home indefinitely. The more "high functioning" would have just been seen as odd or weird or special.

Autism isn't new. It's always existed. It's just it was hidden from public view much more often in the past.

Its not inherited, just to say

Its thought at the moment to be genetic. Thats not the same as inherited. This misunderstanding is quite widespread

Oh don’t worry, we were there 👋mostly struggling along unaided and/or misdiagnosed