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?

@CurlyhairedAssassin also no need to refer to autism as a spice spectrum to be fair.

I think diagnoses are given out too readily to some children

What background do you have that qualifies you to say this? The diagnosis process is very robust in the UK vs other countries, I don't know much about autism exactly, but ADHD diagnosis is widely believed to be under what they expect the statistical average for the population is.

@aplthtoa so hard to get a diagnosis. That is how you know someone is not educated on the subject. Maybe asd should be like the equivalent of self gender identity? We just go fuck it I have autism and now I shall be autistic and you shall call me thus. We can walk around waving our hands about the odd time like some people who have changed gender (in ireland at least) on a whim (barbie kardashian i am looking at you) and nothing else needs to be discussed about it.

@Ponderingwindow

You do realize that children with autism are just as likely to be advanced as to need remedial instruction.

I know I’m biased because I’m surrounded by people whose autism comes with high iq, but it is quite irksome to see this trotted out repeatedly.

Yes I do and apologies that is not what I meant.

I'm talking about what is was like back in the day and put 'remedial' in quotation marks because it's outdated and inaccurate. 'Remedial' is where anyone who was different was sent back then. (80s snd early 90s)

There have always been autistic kids. They just weren't diagnosed.
A lot more children were either beaten into submission, put into remedial schools if they had behavioural issues

I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is here that autistic people are struggling with in modern life. There is SO much more sensory input these days and neurodivergent people have been shown to not be able to filter and blend that input in the same way a neurotypical person does. For example, sat in my lounge at any one time I can hear two clocks ticking at slightly different tempos, hear the fridge humming from the other room, put up with very bright light as our lounge is south facing, and also hear the cars going past. I take in all of those things individually and my brain does not know what to concentrate on, it’s extremely exhausting dealing with it and figuring out what to listen to and what to ignore and it’s ALL day every day, in every environment I am in.

I struggle with bright electrical lighting, constant electronic noise (music, machine beeping, coffee machines grinding away) and also a lot of neurodivergent people are VERY aware of the noise that electric makes; I can hear a constant alternating hum.

I imagine that there were far fewer and less stimulating sensory input for autistic people. I suspect had I been born 200 years ago, I could have happily lived my life out as a farm girl with the same routine and jobs and less sensory input everyday.

Ah it's a shame this thread has descended into a combative and defensive ND vs NT argument by some people. It could have been a really interesting and thought-provoking thread with everyone, whether diagnosed, undiganosed, ND or NT or "not really sure but probably ND", able to offer an idea or opinion, without resorting to immediate accusations of ignorance. From both ND and NT people. Both sides are not at war with each other FGS!

Absolutely this 1000 times.
The difference is other protected characteristics have protested to make it illegal to discriminate under the hate speech law.
This is no different except because of the vulnerability of the victim it's not taken seriously because the nt thinks they know better than nd.

Yes like the other 100 threads posted every month.

I think sadly in years past my son would have been called a lot of vile names and he certainly wouldn't have been in a mainstream school. Even when your child had obvious additional needs it's a fight for diagnosis and to get support, anyone who thinks it's easy is absolutely deluded.

We can all have autistic traits (like routine, preference for materials, noise and levels etc) but that doesn't mean we are autistic- that's referring to other posters not the OP as not having the routine etc doesn't cause meltdown, anxiety etc,

I think looking back at families, school pupils etc we now see actually they may have been autistic but had to cope/ mask etc. Also a lot of women who may be diagnosed with anxiety, depression etc may be suffering those conditions because of undiagnosed autism/ adhd.

In school when we start having a conversation with parents about their child - a lot of parent will reply, but I did that as a child etc. Maybe people's quirkiness has grown, maybe traits are more obvious because of the society we live in- most people don't just have 1 job in life, relationship and dating is different, family and community is different.

We've just had dd diagnosed this week and dp is autistic too and he got himself diagnosed first as he was noticing dd doing same behaviours as dd and also talking to he also was speaking to a work colleague who had been diagnosed and she was describing her traits and he was that's me, I thought that was 'normal'. He came home that dad saying he thought he was autistic and I'm like I thought you knew!

Looking round at my age 40 something undiagnosed friends, there are plenty who clearly struggled and issues were considered behavioural. At least the curriculum was less pressurised so they were able to scrape through school somehow.

Clearly there was.

Here you go then, I label you as a goady cunt. 🏅

I suspect this is roughly where I would fall, it’s a good way of describing it. A diagnosis would have been helpful at school but now I’m an adult and I can set my life up to accommodate my own needs it’s not really necessary.

Yes, of course it's true that there is a lot of stimulating sensory input now. But I don't think it would have been THAT much better years ago. Often you had 10 or more people crowded into a 2 up 2 down. There was probably often a baby or toddler crying in the house. Someone always cooking in the kitchen. As a child you probably weren't allowed in the quiet parlour where your dad was sitting smoking his pipe and reading the newspaper. If you wanted a break from playing outside and just wanted to come in and read a book on your own for a while to have some space, many people would have got chased back outside by their mother who would only expect you in at tea time. It would have been hard to find any peace at home if you lived in a city, in the winter especially. The streets would have been filled with children playing out. I'm sure it would have been hard to escape noise and find a quiet corner for yourself. Easier, as you say, if you lived in out in the country.

At least now you can buy noise cancelling and noise blocking headphones if you can't find a quiet corner, which many NT people like to do. Libraries are luckily still a thing. It IS possible to find genuine quiet but I guess it's easier for some people than others, especially in busy households.

Another contentious thread where the OP posts once.

Labels are extremely useful and we all use them every day. Coshei is a label. Girl, boy, man, woman... In fact every word is a label we have attached to a certain thing to allow us to explain and understand it, without labels we would not have language.

There's a huge link with autism and older fathers.

First time dads are way older nowadays. Imo it's this - plus the better diagnosis - which is the main reason. Couples used to have kids a lot younger, so younger dads = less autism

And yet the conversation is about why things are more prevalent now instead of way back when, when food was better, food was not processed, our fathers and mothers were younger then etc and yet still so many of us have been diagnosed older in life with something we have been born with.

I do get that the question was initially about why are there now more people being diagnosed and it is simple, finally doctors have established terminology etc for autism but the fact that kids now are being more diagnosed only means that being diagnosed is more common not being autistic to begin with. Or do we not count older people with autism? Do we not figure in this at all?

I honestly don’t know OP. I don’t think it is just better diagnosis although this will account for some of it. Out of 25 children in DD’s class, 2 have autism - one non verbal, the other higher functioning but still clearly autistic. There might be more, that’s just the 2 I know about, and there’s another boy who is undergoing assessment as he has uncontrollable aggression. So if he gets diagnosed - 1 in 8. It does seem really high.

It’s a good question though. It really does seem at times that every other child mentioned on here is autistic. I’m honestly surprised to click on a thread about anything - even the weather - and not see the OP mention an autistic child (or ADHD, or both).

There's more kids/babies born with autism now though - and more older fathers. That's not to say there aren't autistic people in every older generation. There's just more among the youngest generation, and the OP asked why that is. There's more old fathers now - and research studies have shown a link between older fathers and a higher likelihood of autism in offspring.

@MsCactus no there is not. There are more kids diagnosed with autism. Way back when we did not have the knowledge so its not that more are diagnosed it is that they CAN be diagnosed. Autism has always been around it is education that has gotten more prevalent not autism itself.

Does that mean that the youngest children in a family are more likely to be autistic? Anyone know of any research?