To think perhaps my son isn’t autistic but instead modern society is too challenging for him to cope with.

There's an idea that the changing environment is one reason why more people are considered disabled or neurodivergent. The concept of physical disability became important with the industrial revolution, and now the same thing is becoming true for neuropsychiatric disabilities because of the information and tech-rich environment.

I agree with this. Life was more simple. We spent more time outdoors. Children were not over-parented like they are now. I say this as someone who is ADHD (DC too). Despite feeling a bit different to other people when I was young, and being a bit chaotic and disorganised, I can’t say having ADHD occurred to me. Although I know it was less of a thing back then. Nowadays I find the pace of life and sensory overwhelm to be very much felt. Possibly I am more aware of these things. Possible perimenopause heightens things. But yes, I do agree there is something about modern society, including educational expectations, which is just overwhelming for a lot of people. The idea that we are medicating children so they can sit still in class and conform to our behaviour expectations is actually horrifying to me. What happened to outside time, free play, curiosity…. Everything is so demanding and rigid. I fear for the younger generations really.

My (adopted) cousin went to special school because his siblings did, and didn't learn to read until adulthood as a result!

Sparla

I completely agree.

There is so little room for individuality in schools now.

I've had discussions with some teachers who work in MAT schools where they have scripts for the day, teaching scripts, routine scripts, etc to ensure 'consistency' not only within the the class or across the school but across several.schools. the idea being that if you walked into any class, in any school at any point in the day, you would see and hear the exact same thing. It doesn't allow for any individual differences in staff or pupils.

Elements of it are starting to creep into my school too.

Along with that, the adaptations we are allowed/required to put in place for SEN children in the classroom are designed to minimise the impact of their need in the classroom - to maoe them look/behave/work a bit more like everyone else rather than actually being suited to them and their actual needs.

Confused by 'invented in 2014'.

I think perhaps there are some things that are more challenging, but watching my daughter and thinking about my own childhood in the 80s, it’s become pretty clear that I am probably autistic too. But there was zero understanding and zero support for girls - I was just told to get on with it, that the turtleneck wasn’t going to actually kill me, that I should hug my great aunts and be polite and be a good girl. I think my daughter has far more freedom and much more support.

For sure, I remember lots being openly bullied for being different.

School in the 80s and 90s involved the teachers themselves regularly taking the piss out of me for being different. Yes even the bloody teachers bullied me and singled me out in front of the rest of the class. If you think life was easy for neurodivergent kids back then you have no idea.

Probably society, definitely education. I've been a teacher almost 30 years. I was talking to another long server recently and she actually pinpointed the change in curriculum 12 years ago to the big shift in behaviour changes we've seen recently.
We went to Jodrell Bank recently, they have the old school reports of the guy who conceived it. Today, he'd be described as neurodiverse. Then, he was naughty at school, but great at cricket. British used to celebrate the quirky and unusual if they were from a certain class (obvs the class thing is an issue in itself), now we label but don't necessarily support.

I think the exact opposite! I think it was much harder in the 80s. Teachers didn't care about your feelings or upsetting you. It was acceptable to shame you in front of your fellow pupils. You were anxious and scared, of the 'nasty teacher ' and your parents punishing you harshly and shaming you ever more. Kids struggling were labelled stupid and lazy.

I'm going to bring the controversial word....resilience. because however much we don't like to accept it, that's the biggest difference between generations. However hard the experience was for many, kids built resilience through the experience and with it learn to cope.

This is why so many are coming out in their 50s and 60s now seeking diagnosis. Deep inside, the issues were there too, but the previous generation learn to live with it and adjust whereas this new generation rely on others adjusting to them, hence the higher reliance on diagnosis to access it.

The national curriculum is so rigid now, and teachers are under so much pressure to meet targets. That pressure inevitably gets passed on to the children. I have an aunty who went to school in the 70s and 80s, and she went to an open-air school. They were originally set up for children with tuberculosis, but later they took children who struggled a bit at mainstream school, often with things like asthma, or anxiety, and many who probably had undiagnosed autism or adhd. My aunty went there because she had a post viral condition and got tired very easily. They were gentler than mainstream schools, with smaller classes and less pressure. Some children just went for a year or 2 then back to mainstream, and some carried on till they left school. I often think it would be good if schools like that made a comeback. Obviously we have special schools now but only for children who have very severe SEN and it's very difficult to get a place.

I think there is some truth to this. I was still autistic in the 90s though undiagnosed but I can see now that getting a diagnosis might be more critical for my DD.

It's hard to put my finger on how school has changed but it seems a lot more restrictive now than it did especially in terms of the curriculum. I can't believe how little time they spend on things like art and how intensive the reading and writing programme is. There seems to be more rules in general.

There are also subtle changes. Like how parents can't come into the classroom now. It feels like a more siloed environment.

I don't feel surprised that lots of kids don't want to go and find it too much.

I also think that now all children are sort of expected to achieve whereas previously if you weren’t ‘academic’ that was accepted and there wasn’t this expectation that you would necessarily manage all the work. More manual jobs were available.

I think modern life and the education system is stressful for all children, and of course that’s going be worse for ND children.

The amount of testing is utterly insane. And yet grade inflation is a thing. Kids are going to uni with all their A*s and yet too often appear completely ill-equipped to actually cope with uni than we were with our Bs and Cs.

The system is broken. And too many children are broken by it.

I dont think the OP is questioning whether or not her son would meet the diagnostic criteria but whether difficulties are amplified by modern life.

I think they are.

A lot of children who would have previously coped in school (and did) no longer do due to the increased demands.

I was diagnosed as an adult. I was an 'odd' child but able to cope and went under the radar because life was 'quieter' all round.

I don't think there are more autistic children today just that it went under/un diagnosed previously and some of us would have just been missed.

Agree completely. And I include myself in this. I say how busy and knackered I am yet my phone screen time stats don’t lie, I’m binning a good couple of hours every day minimum on scrolling. As well as the dopamine hit I think sinking endless time into screens makes everything else overwhelming as there’s less time to do it

I have two kids with SEN. Their level of ASD/Dyslexia is not extreme so feels more of a difference in personality, ability, way of thinking or whatever. School is a sausage factory and my kids aren’t “pork” or whatever so they find it hard and get in trouble for minor petty things. In the actual real world their way of being and thinking could be valuable, there are more jobs that fit ND brains now, but school is too narrow and kids aren’t encouraged to express themselves or be comfortable and explore this type of intelligence. It’s more strict than when I was in school. Maybe it’s just my kids’ school but I can’t wait for them to leave and start finding themselves, with less fuss over what shoes they wear or going on report for wearing concealer or being shouted at for not wearing their blazer on a hot day while walking out of school. ASD/ADHD kids have enough to cope with and most office jobs don’t care about clothing, make up or shoes.

Talking to the outside therapists was a revelation, they give training but the teachers are stuck in the past and hold the SEN kids to the same standards. One denied ASD was a disadvantage in life. My employer is more disability friendly and I work with many I suspect are ND. Sadly, they need qualifications to get a job and there’s no alternative to the sausage factory.

It’s so sad and unnecessary that small children are watching PowerPoints. As soon as PowerPoint comes on my brain switches off with anticipatory boredom so goodness knows what it does to kids!

I am autistic and always think I would have been a lot happier living in the 60s. Nowadays there are sounds, music, screens and flashing lights everywhere. Parenting roles were more divided where as nowadays both parents are expected to do a bit of everything. I definitely feel I would have benefited from being able to concentrate on either work or family life, combining both can be overwhelming. We also have the expectation that someone is constantly available and reachable now. Switching off is a lot more difficult now.

I definitely think it was a lot easier for autistic people to cope a few decades ago and maybe that is why diagnosis was rare because people just didn't need the level of support they need now.

OP, I agree. I think I'm probably neuro diverse bit never diagnosed. I lived abroad till I was 8, zero technology except a radio. Then back here it was a bit of children's TV in the afternoon, lots of outside play. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to cope and I'm 52. I think smartphones was a huge one for me.

Same story as many here, my autistic daughter is perfectly able to cope with pretty much everything except school. She is in Year 9 now and there is literally never a normal week where she just has to go to lessons, muddle through and come home. Every single week, and actually most days, there's an assessment, or a non-uniform day, or people from industry coming in to run workshops. Mostly, it is the assessments which hit her hard. They have to revise, and for most subjects they have to turn in their revision in a certain format as "evidence" that they've revised. "I thought doing well in the test would BE the evidence that I'd revised!" is a regular refrain in our house.

Add this to the fact that there are 1500 pupils in a school built for 900, the toilets are constantly locked, and lunchtime is only 30 minutes as a behaviour management tool, and you can understand the struggle.

Life decades ago was challenging in different ways.

However, many of today’s triggers weren’t an issue.

Life was consistent- people didn’t travel as far, food was somewhat monotonous. Clothes were uncomfortable mind- stiffer and itchy 😅. I liked hand me downs that someone else had knocked the stuffing out of!

There wasn’t continuous noise and lights everywhere you went.

It was a lower demand environment in many ways.

The modern classroom is dominated by the "smart" whiteboard and powerpoints (ugh). The screen is cluttered with needless headers and footers and other spurious information, and sometimes even needless animations and sound effects. For anyone who would otherwise have "mild" sensory irritation, it's relentlessly jarring. In the old days there was an occasional image shown on the overhead projector and otherwise just the teacher talking and handing out books and paper.

I'm a teacher so I have control over my own classroom and rarely turn the projector on, and if I do, it's usually to project a single image or (very rarely) a short video clip. Not relentless interminable screen time.