What % of kids have asd?

[Chilto]

So many friends kids have recently been diagnosed with asd and adhd. I am considering seeking diagnosis for my 2 kids and myself as we have some traits and find social situations difficult. Kids have occasional meltdowns but only at home. However a few years ago I would not have considered it as we are all ‘managing’ but maybe not thriving. Does any one have any up to date numbers of percentages with asd conditions?

Children with disabilities are still, sadly, dumped in orphanages or abandoned in many parts of the world. I don't think you can accurately compare the UK with any of the other countries you list.

A comparison between, for example, the UK and the US or Australia would probably be more accurate.

I agree the number of 1:64 seems very outdated now. We know lots of families with at least one DC who has ASD and/or ADHD and there are many more people I can think of that I'm pretty sure have those conditions, but aren't diagnosed.

I don’t agree with this at all.

My Dd masked all her life. Started to struggle after lockdown. Diagnosed 2years ago at 16.

Since then she has entered severe burnout, and been out of school a year.

Few symptoms as a young child.

16yo on the CAMHs list. Suspected ADHD/ autism, possibly both. Need full assessment first before we go any further. He has managed only just, but struggles a lot. We just didn't see it all the way through his schooling.

Approximately 3 in every primary class of 30 children. So around 10%, much higher than the published percentage.

@DragonFly98 but the Primary school data really isn't accurate, many, many children are not diagnosed until later in their teens. My DD was compliant, well behaved and extremely able at Primary, kept her distance from most but had a small group of friends, teachers only picked up on the fact she liked to observe other children and her extended writing in creative subjects did not match her ability in other more factual subjects. Her 'quirks' like many didn't become an issue until Secondary

Yes I accept it may well be higher that's why I specified at primary age. It's more accurate now though than it was even ten years ago. Children particularly girls that were not diagnosed until much older are getting diagnosed at a younger age as there is more awareness. My eldest was diagnosed at 17 her much younger brother and sister at ages 4 and 6.

My youngest is awaiting ASD assessment, so two of my children are potentially affected here out of 4 in a household. DH currently waiting on ASD assessment too.

Both of my children are autistic.

I know it’s frowned upon to say but it’s definitely a spectrum and my youngest is far more ‘profound’ than my eldest, and needs a lot more extra support.

Also I think that ASD is a far broader spectrum nowadays

Except with broadening the umbrella, some individuals who would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s in the past may now find that their difficulties are not severe enough to meet the current ASD criteria.

I teach in a mainstream school. Last year my Y6 class had 5 children with diagnosed ASC, and one waiting to be assessed.
In my lower KS2 class this year I have two children diagnosed with ASC, one waiting to be assessed, and one other child who is clearly ASC, but high functioning and parents don't see need for diagnosis at present time.
Our SEND team are inundated with parents wanting referrals for ASC and ADHD, and waiting lists are long, some choose to go private.
Most of the referrals we put through as a school do end up in a diagnosis. However, in the past term we have had some referrals from private EPs which have said the children do not have ASC.

I think diagnoses have definitely risen. A combination of more awareness and a school curriculum that is stripped back to maths and english and lots of desk sitting. My DD barely does any music, no dance or drama at school. School classrooms are crammed so any physical movement into others' spaces like kneeling on a chair moving to the side is frowned upon. I think these things intensify the strain of masking compared to my 1980s childhood where we were outside a lot.

I'm not disagreeing that schools aren't benefitting a lot of children these days. Clearly something is going wrong somewhere.

But I always read on these types of threads that schools have changed so much and how it involves more sitting at desks.
I was at school in mid 80s- mid 90s. Pretty much all I did was sit at a desk. I don't remember a huge amount about early primary school so that might have been more "fun". But definitely in secondary school we had one period (which was about an hour) of PE a week. One period of music a week. And no special drama lessons. We had one term where drama took place during English lessons. That was it. And I've never had a dance lesson at school in my life. The only time people had more lessons like music was if they chose it as an option for GCSE so after year 9.

@fieldsofbutterflies ????

I think that's such a weird thing to say?

Why on earth would you think that France or indeed Spain has a greater proportion of children put into orphanages than the UK?

This is definitely a thing that can be easily seen in official stats, how would someone even form such a thought?

Maybe you're just forming such a thought based on Romania in communist times but why would you think France or Spain are like that, and today?

So apart from this (wrong) hypothesis, why would the UK be so different to France and Spain? (and more similar to the US and Australia - it's hardly due to the specific ethnic heritage? that doesn't sound right.)

This is grim reading regarding the treatment of autistic people in France.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/france-is-50-years-behind-the-state-scandal-of-french-autism-treatment

Why do you think numbers have risen?

l was teaching in early 90’s until 2021.

This government have butchered creative subjects. If you were in school in 96, you would have had to do compulsory DT as an option. There would also have been Art and other creative subjects.

Schools are completely different now to the 90’s. So much more pressure and targets. Schools have axed so many music and creative departments. They are the most expensive to run and this government have dropped them from the their Ebac thingy. Theres no money to run them and fewer kids opting as the pressure is all on theoretical subjects.

We did have to do a tech GCSE but for us it was a "half" GSCE. I'm not entirely sure what that meant though. So from year 9 we had 30 mins of our chosen one once a week which they added in at the end of a school day. I was most annoyed as we usually finished school at 3.30 but on Mondays in order to fit in the tech option we needed to stay until 4pm.
Art and music were an hour a week before year 9. After that it was only if you had chosen it for GSCE.
My GCSEs were Maths, English Lit and Language, Double Science, French, History, RE, Business studies and my half Food Tech one. Other than PE once a week for an hour they were the only subjects I studied from year 9.

Edited to add extra subject

@SeulementUneFois actually and unrelated to the category of SEN, France does have more orphanages than in the UK with 12 Vs our 0 true orphanages they are not by any means necessarily the negatives space we think of as orphanages though. For example there are specialist ones for children who have lost a parent in the police force, the children may even have a surviving parent and just 'board' during the week where they receive therapy and support to deal with the loss of the parent but still attend local schools and have friends visiting etc.

An article in The Times about the backlog of children and teens waiting for autism/adhd diagnosis which I read this week said:

"Estimates suggest that there might be as many as 1.2 million autistic people and 2.2 million people with ADHD in England, and Stein said a “radical rethink” was needed of how to approach the problem across the whole of society.

The pandemic led to a jump in the number of children diagnosed with mental health or behavioural problems, as lockdowns and school closures “unmasked” symptoms. A surge in ADHD diagnoses means one in nine children are now classed as having a disability, with ministers increasingly alarmed at the economic implications of rising claims."

Did it change anything in your life though in that you got lots more support etc or did it change your life because it gave validation to the way you have always felt all your life (sorry if I’ve not worded this 2nd bit well pls don’t take offence). I have an autistic son who was diagnosed at 6 and it was basically diagnose and discharge and it’s been a real struggle to get support. I can’t imagine there is an abundance of support being given to adults who are diagnosed

I agree with this. I believe we are only just starting to get an idea now more people are coming forward for assessment and diagnosis. I have no idea on stats but they are likely to be dramatically under representative of the true prevalence. There are 4, possibly 5 neurodivergent kids in my son's class of 25.

@MumOfOneAwesomeHuman that's interesting. The thing is though that none of these conditions need to lead to economic issues in the future if the workplace could be adapted.

Jordyns Summer Shirt project is the perfect example, originally set up as a summer project by the parent of an autistic teen with fairly high support needs to give her some work experience, they adapted all of the tasks for their daughter giving her independence and now employ others with autism and learning disabilities and the project has been going for years. But it took love and a wish for giving their daughter independence and purpose rather than a companies bottom line.

Lots of repetitive jobs that would suit have become machine automated etc or the demands of the entry levels have increased, or the recruitment process rather than doing work trials.

In Denmark it is 1% of the population. I attended a course the other day for nurses working with children.
However, there will be a number of people with autism but not an official diagnosis.

I am guessing you and kids are not Neurodivergent?

It would be incredibly damaging to a private clinicians reputation to just diagnose for money's sake. There is a collectively agreed approach and process to diagnosis that has to be tested rigourously. You can't just randomly say yes you're Autistic. This is the sort of argument those in denial will use as I heard them myself - teachers, schools,some fathers.

You really have to live it to understand how utterly essential it is for so many youngsters to be diagnosed. Being continually blamed and offered no support at all for your child who is actually ND was one of the most stressful experiences I've had - and I have lived through alot of stressful situations The school even blocked the provision of information to enable an assesment so I felt forced to pay £2k to go private. For my child it has been the best thing ever. He now shouts out to anyone who he is and embraces it. He has learnt alot online and now fully understands himself. He has been supported with acceptance at school ( it's not ideal). His little quirks are no longer that of a ' naughty' child. He is not naughty but even I was buying into it at one point.

Any ' professionals' saying it's not worth diagnosing has in my view an ulterior motive or is incredibly ignorant and shouldn't be allowed to leave their house let alone be in any ' professional ' role.

i understand that there will be some adults who may feel a diagnosis is of no value to them now.