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 brother and my son are both autistic. My brother is much more obviously affected, however they both function.

My brother was called a ‘weird kid’ at school and bullied by both the other children and the teachers. He was eventually diagnosed at the age of 17. He left school with virtually no qualifications and has never worked (he also has physical health issues).

My son was diagnosed at the age of 4 and so far at least has been supported and helped by the school. 30 years ago, he too would have been the ‘weird’, ‘naughty’, ‘disruptive’ kid. As it is, he’s got a chance at least. Which is more than my brother got.

I prefer these days.

I've name changed for this as I don't want to be flamed for it. But absolute hand on heart I know of several autistic children under the age of 7 and the majority of them their fathers have coke problems. I genuinely believe there is a link with it. Too much of a coincidence imo

Another theory I’ve seen is that some autistic traits are now an advantage and are selected for. Since the age of computing and academia there is more demand for people who are good at that and they are more likely to be on the asd spectrum. They are successful and have a role in society and are more likely to have kids. In the past non-fitters-in were more likely to end up shunted off into religious orders, staying with their birth family or sidelined in other ways. So the genes for it have become more prevalent. No idea if it’s true but it could be one of multiple factors.

Also agree in the past a lot of people just had to suffer and cope and be considered/treated as eccentric. Sometimes they had a skill that meant they could find a niche, sometimes not.

I remember in my first job the company had an accountant who was affectionately regarded as a weirdo - a much older guy. He was jumpy, obsessive, fidgety, awkward, talked in a very fast monotone and was often socially clueless. These days people would be diagnosing him left right and centre. Then he was just him, good at his job and people accepted he wasn’t Mr social skills.

All the autistic children I know have at least one parent who has now worked out they are also autistic.

Anecdata just like yours of course. 🤷‍♀️

Also possible that people with undiagnosed autism might end up turning to substance/alcohol abuse as a way of coping.

Totally anecdotal and not evidence-based as yet but my colleagues working in an adult-ASC diagnosis service which has a number of referrals from GCHQ employees used to light-heartedly say as soon as they saw GCHQ on the referral, they would think ASC was likely.

You know several autistic children and the majority of their fathers are raving coke heads?! Blimey 😶
Well I can discount that as the reason my son has it.

Its hugely multi layered

Society over the past 30 years has changed to become harsher, faster, more stimulating, more rigid, less interaction with people, more instant gratification
There is more awareness of ND disorders and more understanding of how to be diagnosed and what the traits are
There is far far less ability for schools to manage pupils with extra needs, in any form, schools are too big, noisy and impersonal and the only way a child's needs will be recognised is formally
Covid has contributed to huge backlogs of everything
We are still learning about what is or isnt ND, this will continue to fluctuate in terms of our understanding and diagnosis.

It does make me wonder about the violent kids, the chair throwers, the ones who smelled etc etc back in the 80s maybe better awareness now that their home-life etc was not ideal....
Same with autism - they were labelled naughty or odd back in the day.

I have worked with disadvantaged families. I do now wonder how many of the families who've struggled to cope for generations have been impacted by neurodiversity as well as low level unrecognised learning needs.

I'm a speech and language therapist involved in ASD diagnosis in the public sector and everybody I work with agrees there is a huge surge. Diagnoses were mega on the rise prior to covid due to more awareness, early detection etc, but something seems to have changed in the last couple of years.
I have no idea what. Some people will shout "it's lockdown!" and yes, lockdown might have had an impact on social skills, language etc, but by its very nature can't cause the (very probably) largely genetically decided difficulties/strengths that are ASD.
It's at the point now where me and my colleagues are almost surprised when we see a little one (pre-3) who isn't clearly autistic come onto our caseload. This never used to be the case.
To be clear, the diagnostic criteria are strict and we are extremely careful about diagnosis, so yes - all the children we see that get a diagnosis definitely fit the diagnostic criteria.
It's a puzzle for sure. One psychologist I spoke to suggested she has seen a huge rise in alcohol intake over the covid period which may account for some of the suspected ASD which could possibly be foetal alcohol exposure, but even that wouldn't explain the huge and sudden rise that I could see.
I just don't know but am really interested.

This! 👏 thank you.

Absolutely sick of these ignorant people like OP especially sat behind a keyboard.

Go and ask one of the school run mums or your friends why they think it is?!

Bit of a spanner in all this and please don't take this as inflammatory, is there no such thing as a naughty kid anymore?

Kids are not naughty in a vacuum though! Extreme behaviour challenges will always be a result of environmental factors, trauma or an underlying disorder.

Absolutely sick of these ignorant people like OP especially sat behind a keyboard.

What? OP simply observed something and asked about it, and a discussion ensued, like a lot of threads. What has OP done wrong?

I also wonder if decreased infant mortality has led to an increase in young people with autism. Ds and 3 other children with autism I know all have other conditions whereby 20 years ago they probably wouldn’t have survived the first year of life. Conditions like epilepsy are co morbid with autism and again just a few generations back that would have been higher risk of being fatal.

it’s such a complex picture with no simple answer.

Some really interesting theories here.

I wonder what the trend is in other countries, is it the same in first world countries? I wonder about less developed countries, even if diagnosis or supports are not in place do educators see a trend of increase autistic behaviours??

I’m not saying I know either way but the selection element is interesting to raise

@MolkosTeenageAngst
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.

Out of interest, do you think any of these children might not have received an autism diagnosis in the past due to diagnostic overshadowing? ie. everything would have been put down to whatever else they were diagnosed with?

We know from the research (if it is accurate) that there is a huge genetic component to ASC.

The Internet and SM has many, many disadvantages but it has also put lots of people in touch with other people who have the same differences, struggles, experiences and interests in touch with each other.

It's not a stereotype or purely anecdotal that so many of us in our 40s ➕️ knew a family member, friend or colleague or several that had social communication differences that marked them out as 'loners' or 'socially awkward' or whatever that made it difficult for them to find partners or maintain romantic relationships.

The advent of the Internet and SM meant someone could find like-minded and similar people on the Internet that they could get to know, form friendships with and subsequently meet with and form romantic/sexual relationships with.

So it could just be that more people with ASC have had DC with other people with ASC over the last 30 years or so and as a result of genetics, there are more people with ASC now than ever before.

Some, but actually most children do inherently want to please adults, they want to achieve, they want to be praised, they want to be liked etc. Of course all children can have moments where they are ‘naughty’ but if a child is consistently and repeatedly acting out then I think the possible reasons for it need to be looked at as few happy children in secure, loving, supportive homes and with no underlying SEN) will typically just repeatedly act naughty for the sake of it.

If a child is repeatedly ‘being naughty’ then that suggests to me there is something going on, definitely won’t always be due to neurodiversity, could be something related to the home environment for example, but I think there will usually be some kind of reason that is beyond the child just being ‘naughty,’ as a teacher I would never just put consistent difficult behaviour down to the child just being ‘naughty’ without trying to find out whether something is going on behind the scenes.

That'll be part of it. Some traits that autistic DC often have would've made survival much more difficult until quite recently. Only being able to tolerate a limited range of food, for example, and bolting.

more awareness
more older parents
more people in general means more chance of people having it

Instead of hundreds of kids being abandoned by school like has happened for centuries, they’re actually being supported now

I remember going to an autism seminar, perhaps around 30 years ago and being told then that the diagnosis/actual rate of ASD around the world (although might have meant the western world) was consistent and was at about 10%

I would be very interested to see the stats now.

Not entirely. DC and adults are still individuals despite genetic and environmental factors. Individual personalities still exist!