Massive increase of children with autism

[TickingKey46]

I've noticed since the lock down there is a massive increase in children being assessed for autism and associated conditions. I mean massive.

On the school run parents are often discussing it it's become so routine. I'm really interested in why. Why are so many children being diagnosed with this condition?

My opinion still stands.

I've skimmed a few pages but I assume the usual shite has been trotted out, I've seen the "if I had it I wouldn't have had kids" semi-eugenics line has appeared and I'm assuming we've had the "looking for an excuse" line and "shitty parents and screens" for the bingo card too.

My child was already diagnosed - but it was the pandemic that drove me to look for answers about my own experience - if you think about the collapse of people's established routines almost overnight when we entered lockdown (I didn't realise just how much my routine depended upon being across a particular junction when the clock chimed 8, going to the same coffee shop for the same order etc), and then the sensory overload of signage everywhere (the yellow and black hurt my eyes so much), announcements constantly going off to keep distanced, constant changes of the rules of social interaction and things like proxemics (social distance for different levels of relationships) all being changed overnight... if you were just about chugging along and had figured out enough of this stuff to blag your way through and then it was all taken away and changed... can you make the connection a bit better - or is this faux ignorance as an attempt to wind them up and watch them go?

My husband is also very clearly autistic but has no need in himself to seek a diagnosis - his job and his life works for him... but with the collapse of my mental health and complete autistic shutdown I went into (particularly at the point of the second lockdown) - I needed to know, and I needed to understand... and getting that diagnosis was literally life changing and it was like shifting into focus everything in my life that I'd thought of as failures, as me fucking up, as me deserving to be lonely and friendless - and once I understood it (and I didn't abdicate blame at all - there are ways I respond to situations which make them worse and I try to learn by it) - I became a much better person to be around and able to explain and advocate for myself; and now I can actually use my knowledge about how I see the world to explain things like sensory elements to others - I do a lot of mealtime observations to assess safe swallowing, and I've gone in a lot of times to care teams who can't understand why someone is becoming distressed and pulling clothing over their ears or face at mealtimes - and the dining room is echoey and sounds painful, or the lighting is too harsh or flickery.

As others said, part of it is more awareness. Likely a significant part.

There are also theories as other said about rising age of parents, more and earlier premature babies surviving and other babies that wouldn't have survived before, a more complicated and sensory intense society causing developmental changes and making 'low level' issues harder to handle, substances in the environment from plastics & air pollution to drugs both old and new, as well as society getting more pathological and seeks out a medical explanation for things that often weren't before.

The awareness also brings about the theory that part of the rise is misdiagnosis. There is signficant overlap between neurodivergent conditions, and people can have more than one. Professionals, parents, and people seeking their own diagnosis are more likely to investigate conditions they hear more of and often once one label is found and, especially when socially acceptable to them, don't seek further unless there is significant further issues, even if another condition is more likely.

There has been the controversial argument that part of the rise is FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, now used instead of having multiple diagnosis about in-utero alcohol exposure). Not that women are drinking more while pregnant, but that it's being misdiagnosed through lack of awareness, social acceptability, and that either evidence or admission from the mother of drinking alcohol is required for diagnosis. FASD is co-morbid with other neurodivergent conditions alnog with physical ones. Research into the area has FASD as common to twice as common as autism, in some areas significantly higher, but it gets far less awareness and there are far fewer places in the UK able to diagnose especially for those without the facial features visible in 10-15% of FASD births. This can be an issue when the same symptoms in both present differently (a child who struggles with social cues and withdraws from it is very different from one who struggles with social cues and recklessly pushes for social interaction -- the latter is much more common and tends to presents younger or first in those with FASD before becoming socially withdrawn and this needs different support).

Trauma dysregulation can fall under neurodivergency, and there has been research discussion for a while about the overlapping symptoms particularly in ADHD and trauma disorders, but also with autism, both in trying to tease out how to distinguish them from each other and how to treat a child with multiple when different supports are shown to be more helpful in each type of issue.

ALL types of children disrupt lessons, but where it is because of a neurodiversity that needs support, why not split and enable that support. Where it's not you can legitimately discipline them.
If you're ND and getting along fine then no need, but it seems like there are situations where it could be beneficial for all children.
It's just impossible for a teacher to be catering to so many different learning styles and environments in one lesson.

I was a crap parent to DS1. I so wish I had his time again. None of the mainstream parenting advice of the time was any help at all.

Re naive, @RonniePickering, yes very possibly. However, someone (you?) accused the thread of spreading the 'flooding' trope. If there were a significant increase in a condition, and people wanted to discuss it, how else could they do that?

A lot of people are observing a significant shift- though probably not specifically around Covid.

I suppose that would depend on which way you choose to believe it. We have saw children who’s parents who have been concerned about anxiety/agoraphobia, end up being given autism diagnosis when they truly never believed it would be autism. We also have children who’s parents pushed and pushed for an autism diagnosis who didn’t get one.

It’s certainly a difficult and sad situation for these young children struggling in schools now. In a class of 6 year olds 5 years ago there may have been 1 or 2 children who needed extra support, but at least in my experience it’s nearer 50% of the class now. Whether that’s support with speech, writing, behaviour, one primary has actually even set up a “quiet” classroom separate for each year group because there was quite a few children who just physically could not cope in a typical classroom learning environment.

You’ve incorrectly tagged me @pickledandpuzzled, I’ve neither called you naive or said anything like you’ve paraphrased.

Because it’s not that simple for a a start. You can my just have a Nd and an Nt classroom and then think problem solved all needs will be met!

A fashion accessory?!
Oh do fuck off.

It would be great if classes were smaller and learning could be better tailored to the DC in the class.

We took DS1 out of mainstream, which helped him so much. Big schools are overwhelming. He was never disruptive, just couldn't engage in a big class.

One reason independent schools have higher proportions of dc with dyslexia is all the families that move their DC from state because they are struggling. I know so many who did the same. If you are a modest family whose child is fine in mainstream state, they stay there. If they're struggling you move heaven and earth to get them somewhere better suited to them.

Because we're taking over the world, obvs 😂 NTs watch out!

Apologies. I can't keep up.

Who knows it may be that the overall population is more like 60:40 NT:ND

That’s what I’ve been wondering too. There are just so many people who previously would have been considered geeky, nerdy, shy, disorganised, forgetful and so on.
I think the increased awareness is a good thing.

My son has autism. I don't think I there is a massive increase in it but I do think there is a massive increase in diagnosis and understanding. My son is struggling with basic literacy but it's believed he is actually very clever and we are now getting the ball rolling on an adhd diagnosis. In times past my son would have just been classed as "slow" or weird and I doubt he'd ever have received the wonderful education he is now getting. He attends mainstream school but goes between his main class and his small asd class with only 5 other children. He is absolutely thriving and the stories from his asd class are absolutely hilarious. All of the autistic children have their special interests and the teacher manages to incorporate these themes into everyday learning. Most people remember having a child in their class that struggled socially and academically and was always the odd one out and was often the butt of jokes and the target for bullies . Looking back I'd put money on many of those children being autistic.

it may be catch up from the lack of referrals from march 2020 onwards,
point made above.

I realised I had cropped at an unhelpful point (Feb 20) and expanded to include 2019 in the last couple I did. But no, there was a minor decrease then huge spike in many areas. You can view for yourself if you like. The stats are here:

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYTNmZmEwNWYtYzcyYS00MDIwLTgxYmYtMGVjZDYwNDM0NWMyIiwidCI6IjUwZjYwNzFmLWJiZmUtNDAxYS04ODAzLTY3Mzc0OGU2MjllMiIsImMiOjh9

Here is the overall England graph.
Max of 5k referrals a month in 2019
Routinely 9k referrals a month in 2022
And not accounted for by any significant reduction during COVID.

"it’s easy to imagine parents engineering traits and looking for a clinical diagnosis until you have an actual real life child in front of you that very clearly is living that diagnosis and you have to do something about it."

Hear hear, @Whyohwhywyoming

I agree with much of what @RamblingEclectic has to say, there’s huge crossover in presentation with ASD/ADHD/FASD/developmental trauma, our neurodevelopmental unit is now assessing for all neurodevelopmental issues if they have a child referred for autism where there’s indication that alcohol or early trauma might be present.

We have a much better understanding of the impact of trauma on child development and the very harmful impact of alcohol use in pregnancy - I think many children diagnosed with ASD/ADHD could also be looking at FASD and/or attachment difficulties, but are never referred for those issues.

Yes definitely

Agree 100% I made the same point upthread, my kids are at the high functioning end and it's an embarrassment to compare with someone more profound. I went to a few support groups but couldn't say a thing because I realised my situation was so much better than the others. At the same time our daily lives are so much trickier than NT families and I can really struggle with the stress of it and it's very lonely as no one understands. The spectrum is so broad, if there was a grading system i think it would be fairer. My kids need accommodations made but then they can thrive. Absolutely incomparable with someone who is effectively disabled by it.

In our case, although it had been vaguely considered before, the suspected autism in DS didn't really seem to be a problem until lockdown. My boy would go to school happy and come out and say he'd had a brilliant day.

Then when he was at home and the return after lockdown, I saw a whole pile of struggles he had, that I wasn't aware of before. I understood masking after reading up on it and we got his diagnosis. The SLT was amazing. The report she wrote was so insightful although broke my heart at times. I would never have had the full picture without these circumstances. Home is his safe place. It's when he's at school or his dad's that he struggles.

I haven't rtft but thought I'd give our perspective anyway

What is so interesting {and concerning} is the amount of parents one sees out with children who are glued to their phones.

Pushing a buggy with one hand, scrolling with another - no eye contact or communication.

In a park- kids playing, but parents on phones.

Years ago parents had no option but to focus on their child in a park or wherever, as there wasn't an addictive device in their hand.

It's worrying that children of six have poor vocabularies- it shows that they aren't being interacted with- The lockdowns were really bad news.

People who were vulnerable should have stayed indoors- the rest of us should have been allowed to mingle.

@DrinkingWineInBed Seriously reporting this thread? I for one have found this of great personal interest, I have 2 children with autism and also work with young children. So what if some asshole reads this and pokes fun elsewhere about ND people, they can F off. I don't care what they think. Most people here are here with genuine intentions. Surely educating each other and discussing our experiences and theories is a good thing as it ultimately brings about better understanding.

@toadasoda
The thing is, autism often leads to burnout and burnout is disabling.

My autistic son was a curious inquisitive bright button delight at 2. At 4 he was a serious boy who could read and spell and do maths with ease, who did phonics with year 2. My mother suggested Oxbridge was in his future.
At 9 he was coming adrift from his friends and rather lonely. He moved to the middle table for literacy as he worked too slowly.
At 12 he had lost his NT friends in general, though they stepped in if he was being bullied, they had little in common with him.
At 16 he had one friend, another autistic boy. His NT friends no longer included or defended him. He didn't want to go out vaping or drinking or into town to wander around. He was lonely. We hoped he might attend a local university.
At 17 he had a huge mental health crash. He spent years in his darkened bedroom, not getting dressed, not washing, not able to attend school.
At 18 I thought I might lose him.
At 22 he now qualifies for high level pip, LCWRA and has a care package from the local authority. He lives at home and has no intention of moving out. He now gets dressed 3 or 4 days a week, sees his one autistic friend who comes round once or twice a week, occasionally goes to his house too, goes out alone to the shops a couple of times a week to get a takeaway. We are delighted with this progress.

This boy understands nuclear physics, microbiology, has a great deal of interest in history and politics, will discuss capitalism Vs communism with degree level understanding, can code like a demon and has created a "world of warcraft" type world online. But he cannot operate in an NT world.

There is nothing mild about autism without LD. Mild autism is not a thing. HFA does mean "not bad autism". It's just differently hard.