Why are so many children autistic these days?

[Superlambaanana]

I've just seen someone comment on a thread that 4 out of 5 of their DC are autistic. So many classroom assistants in every primary class. So many parents I talk to saying they have or are fighting to get a diagnosis for their DC. And yet no one I went to school with at primary or secondary level was ever diagnosed as autistic, nor did anyone do anything that suggested they were undiagnosed like hand flapping or inability to communicate normally. Various levels of intelligence and social ability obviously, but no one who was at the level of meltdowns and needing stringent routine etc. Is it environmental?

Name a case.

Ok sure. Not even going to argue it with you but you’re wrong, and you’d find that out if you googled, or knew any families with autistic kids

@norfolkbroadd made a pretty rude comment which basically suggested I was foolish for asking the original question because autistic parents have autistic children. I don't believe it's that simple. E.g.

Surely some parents of adopted children might find it offensive to be told/ have it assumed they must be adopted themselves? Not all parents of adopted children are themselves adopted.

Being adopted is not something to look down on people for anymore than autism is. That wasn't my point. It is offensive to make assumptions about people, especially that everyone is like you.

@Superlambaanana I was at primary in the 80s so not quite 50 years ago but almost.
I remember there being TA's in the Infants (they might not have been called that but they were there). Often children from the 4th year Juniors (Year 6 in modern) would get sent to the Infants to help out.
In juniors I don't remember TA's but there was sometimes student teachers in the classroom.
Secondary no TAs but I do remember the "Special Ed" classroom - so I assume those who needed extra help were shoved there.
There was a girl with learning difficulties (not autism) in my class who had a 1 to 1 assistant.

Some families. Not all. It cannot all be inherited. My kids dad is not ND. 2 out of three are also ND.

@norfolkbroadd Said exactly that.

If you read my thread properly, you will see I didn’t say those who were diagnosed, but those that are seeking assessments for diagnosis. There’s a huge rise in people putting their child forward for these assessments.

FFs i edited my bad comment worse. Kids dad is NT and 2 of the three are NT too. One is ND like me.

@Superlambaanana I was one that said not all mine are ND and I am.

This is not a thing. At best what you see is masking and use of (healthy or unhealthy) coping mechanisms so that they can "pass" in public. It's fucking exhausting though, and often leads to burnout.

Ok, so I went and looked into research.

Firstly a lot of adults are being diagnosed in the U.K.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34414570/#:~:text=Results%3A%20There%20was%20a%20787,001.

Secondly there is only a small rise in the numbers of children aged 0-5 diagnosed with autism and the average age of diagnosis is 2 as it was in 1998.

Thirdly there is an increase in girls being diagnosed at adolescence

Fourthly the bulk of the increase is in what they call BA (broad autism or what was formerly known as Asperger's) rather than severe autism (kanner's) although that has increased as well.

The paper has an interesting graph as well.

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.13505
(This is the full paper)

But surely just putting a kid towards a diagnosis means nothing without diagnosis? Im not in the UK myself but my one out of three I had to pay sooooooo much money to get diagnosed. And I dont know being honest where I am if you get a social welfare payment for autism for a child and i certainly dont get anything being an adult so I guess some comments go over my head in regards to payments.

@ArseholeCatIsABlackAndWhiteCat yes I agree some (not most) have referred to more than one explanation but there definitely is no consensus. Some pps have asserted genetics. Others strongly refute this. Some say older dads nowadays while others say the proportions haven't changed. So what I was pointing out was that there appears to be no accepted position.

Who are 'we' and were is your peer reviewed research on this phenomena please?

@Octavia64 look into how many women are diagnosed late in life due to peri. Stats will blow your mind. We mask for so long we really do.

I am that family with autistic kids. And a SenCo/Deputy Head at a special school for autistic kids. My entire life is about improving outcomes for autistic kids and their families. Not sure ‘googling’ will give any answers other than the ones you are looking for. There are no answers. Except I do know that funding is woefully inadequate and shameful.

But there is. Autism NOW is more known about and understood. Since say 1970 it has been more researched and now you can get diagnosed so surely it is education and research that is bumping up the fact people CAN be diagnosed?

There’s no doubt there are better diagnosis. I was at a highly selective private girls school and there were a lot of girls who were clearly autistic. We called them the weirdos and weren’t actually very nice to them. They were incredibly brilliant academically but struggled socially. Most went on to Oxbridge and are very high up in science classics or classical music.

other friends at school absolutely had ADHD. I think we knew they were different, smart as can be but all over the place, a bit naughty but never labelled as weird

It is a bit of a double edged sword. My DD who is 18 was quirky and shy. When I raised if she was autistic I was laughed at and it was never mentioned as a possibility. Clearly she is autistic and her childhood would have been much easier even 15 years ago if it were recognised

On the other hand I do wonder about over diagnosis which may feed into people “growing out of it” I am fairly sure that when my eldest was small, if someone had suggested to me he might be autistic I would have gone for a diagnosis.

He had many traits which at age 1-5 could absolutely have suggested autism. Terrible sleep, separation anxiety, stimming, limited diet, extreme obsessions, meltdowns along with being super bright and no concentration and unable to sit. He had to have incredibly strict boundaries, naps only in his cot, strict routine

however by the time he was about 7 he had matured massively and by about 8 had no issues whatsoever and is a completely neurotypical 22 year old. I am not saying for a moment he was autistic, he absolutely wasn’t but I do worry that if I had him as a baby today I would have looked for a diagnosis as parenting him was so unbelievably difficult and he was so different to all the other babies and toddlers

Because some will still describe their child as having ‘undiagnosed’ autism or adhd if they are either waiting for assessment or having not got the diagnosis, because many parents will still argue that their child has it. Although these won’t have access to support or financial assistance. But will probably appeal.

Yeah but if I make a post saying it's because of the increased availability of bananas everywhere at any time of the year, surely you wouldn't take that as fact or consider it as "no consensus ".

The consensus in the scientific world at the moment(research is still ongoing) is genetics AND better awareness/understanding/diagnosis.

Just look at autism in girls and how many were missed out for decades because the diagnosis criteria was based on presentation in boys. Or how the meaning of autism AND thE criteria for diagnosis has changed through the decades, which of course missed a significant proportion of the population with autism.

Toodleoodleooh thing is you wouldn't have "gone for a diagnosis." You and he would have gone for an assessment. There's a fair few things that can present with the way you've described your Ds, but there are other subtler parts of the assessment that need to be present to receive that diagnosis. Hence a lot of peed off parents convinced their child must have ASD but aren't fitting the box and are made to watch and wait.

@Livelovebehappy ah I see. I wonder if these are the same on here that think we are all on the spectrum? It could be part of my ocd but without a diagnosis to me you are NT. NT until proven guilty!

Then honestly, I’m really surprised you don’t know the link. Have you not taught lots of autistic children with autistic siblings? The fact you have autistic kids (plural) yourself says something too. It doesn’t occur twice in the same family randomly. Youre right, they don’t know a lot but they do know there is a genetic element.

(from someone who is also autistic, with autistic family members, and lots of experience working with autistic kids)

@ArseholeCatIsABlackAndWhiteCat but many are asserting their explanation as fact and others' as nonsense!

So far I have seen (broadly) the following answers to my original post:

• Genetics.
• Autistic parents have autistic children (sometimes or always depending on poster).
• More autistic people getting together because of online dating/ globalisation.
• Improved diagnosis.
• Inaccurate diagnosis.
• Better visibility (autistic children attended special schools in the past).
• Older dads nowadays/ older mothers and fathers.
• Environment- chemicals.
• Environment- processed food.

I feel I have missed some. But these can't all be true at once. Yet pps seem adamant that they are all factual.

Honestly I think I would have not just gone for an assessment I think I would have kept going until I found someone, privately, to diagnose him. He really was so difficult and so different for such a long time I wouldn’t have believed he didn’t have something, anything.

where as DD because she was quiet and shy and well behaved nobody even considered it let alone me.

Something being genetic doesn't necessarily mean that it's directly passed from parent to child. For example, some disorders, like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia, are recessive, and you have to inherit one gene from each of your parents, who, as they only have one gene, are usually unaffected. Autism is much more complex than that, as so many genes are involved; but, though sometimes a parent or other close relative is autistic, often there is no other autistic person in the immediate family.

The strongest evidence for autism having a genetic basis is that most identical twins of autistic people are also autistic, whereas most non-identical twins of autistic people aren't.