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?

Exactly.

I remember teachers actively bullying children to try and get them to be "normal" when I was a child. With hindsight these were the children with autism.

That’s scary and will sadly feed the less professional private companies who will offer substandard assessments because people are desperate. Assessments which in the long run won’t help anyone.

(I am not for one second implying private assessments are all bad but understandably for a proper assessment to be done these companies will have high costs involved. This leads to some not being up to standard and giving the others a bad name!)

I can see some truth to the argument that life now is harder for autistic people.

Even going back to my childhood in the 80s everyday life was pretty boring compared to now. We did the same things every week, ate the same meals. Mothers didn’t work much so home life was more predictable. I think it did make for a happy childhood but I wouldn’t want to live like that today.

The world isn’t going to change unfortunately.

It doesn't explain a very sudden rise since covid, but there are some studies that suggest the increase in older parents has led to an increase in children with ASD.

Could it be because there wasn't a increase during covid.
My youngest didn't see a health history from birth to 3 years old due to covid.
Had she of seen one. At 10 months old she would of been diagnosed with global development delay most likely.

How many other cases were like this. We had to send her to nursery to get outside agency input as we couldn't get a single referral due to covid being used a as a excuse

I know a few schools that are having to expand their premises to incorporate specific areas for children who cannot be in the same classroom setting as NT children.
The increase is huge.
But this increase incorporates other diagnosis and not just autism.
It can't just be due to more awareness as where would these children have been previously?

Some is an increase in awareness, but there is also an increase in the number of children with autism and a severe learning difficulty. I’m a special education teacher, years ago only a small number of the children in special schools had autism but now it is the prevalent condition. These are children who are typically non-verbal, incontinent etc when they start school and have severe learning difficulties alongside autism so absolutely not children whose diagnosis would have been missed in previous years.

There is an increase in autism beyond that which can be accounted for solely by better diagnostics but the exact reason why isn’t known. Some theories I know of are the average age of parents increasing as there is a link between older parents and autism. Also that the population now having children have increased exposure to pollutants and heavy metals etc and these toxins pass from where they have built up in a woman’s body to developing embryos. Autism has a genetic link and so if more autistic adults are having children it also stands to reason that there will be more children with autism. There are likely other theories I don’t know of too.

I don't know, I definitely agree that there has been an increase in awareness, but that doesn't seem enough to explain the huge increase.
I think it's very possible that there are also more children being born with ASD than ever before.
I have seen (briefly) research linking ASD to older parents, pollution etc. So many factors.

I think I knew one child who was diagnosed with autism when I was younger.
My son was diagnosed at 2.5, my cousin’s little boy was at 3 (both at the “severe” end, non verbal etc).
I’m pretty sure I would be diagnosed myself, my dad too.
I believe it is more “common” than we think.

Agree

These children used to be called naughty, slow, odd, retarded.

Thankfully awareness, understanding is improving.

It's possible there has been an increase in the prevalence of autism. Can't be ruled out. But as we have absolutely no fucking idea what the rates were even quite recently, it's not like we'd have any way of knowing.

Diagnosis beats being labelled as the 'naughty disorganised child' (ADHD) the weirdo (autism), the mummy's boy (adult autist who found neurotypical life very hard without additional support from parent), clumsy/lazy at sports (dyspraxia), stupid (dyslexic) etc.

No harm in neurotypical people learning more about what neurodiverse people face.

And of course there will be a post-Covid surge, just as there's a post-Covid surge in driving tests and hip replacements. There's a two year backlog.

I've heard that there are more autistic children in the area around GCHQ who obviously would be more likely to have autistic employees.

Perhaps modern life is doing better at enabling autistic adults to pair up where they might not have previously - communication via the internet is one possibility.

When I was young I had a relative with a severe disability.
I was around people with disabilities and only once did we meet someone with moderate to severe autism. No one spoke of it and other disability was more prevalent.
I was exposed to a lot of people when young and young dc and again no one had it.
Now it's absolutely everywhere and colleagues at work, many have dc with it, school mums, family... I can't think that's it's only because it's suddenly bring recognised more..

I think what used to be considered as some children's quirks or personalities are recognised more. I also think as schools have become so prescriptive and inflexible about how children should be performing and taught and more expectations for all then there is more of a likelihood for children not conforming to be considered outside the norm. Children are less likely to just go under the radar than previously. Less stigma also so more reason to seek a diagnosis.

A lot of autistic kids who had probably been flying under the radar before lockdown thrived during it with less demands, social pressures, school etc. then when things opened back up really struggled and were then flagged up.
Or a lot of autistic kids were coping okay and then lockdown threw them out of their routines and were then flagged up.
So kids who had been "coping" before werent after lockdown.
I suppose also with tiktok in the mix people became more aware a well

In relation to lockdown specifically, there's a backlog being worked through and then also some ND kids who did have routines for coping and managing had them disrupted. Some autistic DC benefitted from not being in school, others really suffered because of it, but what was common to both groups is that they stopped masking in school for sustained periods. They can't necessarily restart it.

People with obvious differences were also really segregated when I was younger. More schools for children with additional needs, more residential homes , places for teens with issues etc.

I just wonder if in years to come the diagnosis of autism, ADHD etc will become soo normal that it will be pointless getting it diagnosed? What it will look like for society on the whole? Will getting a diagnosis actually count for anything or should we just be more tolerant and excepting as a society anyway?
I work with people with severe learning disabilities, these guys obviously need it recognised. To get the help and support they need.

Older dads!!

It’s not just women that have a biological clock. Men over the age of 40 have a far higher chance of having a child with autism.
mots scientifically proven - I wish there were more awareness campaigns around it.

Men think they’re immune and can have children as late as they like without consequence - they can’t.

@RandomMess
Who knows it may be that the overall population is more like 60:40 NT:ND the more education and society moved towards better suiting NT the more ND people struggle.

I think you're right about this. Also in general that society and expectations of the individual have become more difficult for neurodiverse people to navigate over the years, so more people are not coping and looking for/finding the explanation as to why. I would include children and the school and home environment in this.

Fyi I'm a late-diagnosed autistic woman. However, looking at the Broader Autism Phenotype (ie. family members of autistic people often show some traits even if not meeting full diagnostic criteria) it's obvious that my own family members show traits. And I wonder if various events and circumstances in my life had been different if I'd ever have ended up being diagnosed at all. I think I may actually be in the BAP group myself but life has highlighted the autistic bits.

Autism seems to be very poorly understood. Also, the more we know the less we realise we know! Then there's the links between autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc. I think humanity has a patchwork of traits and some, at the more extreme end and grouped together are called "autism" (or ADHD or whatever). But this means there's a lot of people who may struggle with just one element, or who wouldn't struggle but it depends on their environment. And the line between being autistic or not is actually much vaguer in terms of traits/personality/thinking styles than the clear-cut diagnostic line.

What would be interesting to know is whether those with more severe autism (for want of a better way of putting it) have also increased in number, of if its just the somewhat-functional people like me. People like me would be grand if everyone was the same - the world would be different! But some people have autism to such a degree that that wouldn't work. If this level of severe autism is becoming more common too, there might be something in the environment that is affecting gene expression. I feel like the scientists will already be all over this, to the neglect of looking at the social context, though. That seems to be how it goes in general...

Don't underestimate the impact of Covid. All the referral services were shut for most of 2020.

It wont be one reason. Changes in diagnostic criteria, better recognition of presentation in girls, increased survival rates from early births and difficult births, older fathers, autistic people being able to meet up more due to things like certain employers attracting autistic employees. They have all been suggested as causes for increases.

In terms of the covid impact. I think there will be a big backlog.

My more contriversial thought it extreme stress when pregnant might impact. I had swine flu when i was pregmant and it caused all sorts of complications. There was an increase in stillbirth at that time. My son wasnt still born but he has autism and i think the being seriously ill when pregnant and being delivered early played a role in it.

Also even morecontroversially, maybe a lot of the referals are for delayed development/speech and language issues that arent autism but a response to interrupted development stages and some of those children might grow out of the issues with therapy

No.

They (NHS trusts) know the number of referrals before COVID and post-covid. The delays caused by covid or previous waiting lists don't make a difference in the calculations.