To think more people do have autism nowadays?

[malificent7]

Everyone says it's because more people are being diagosed which is true BUT I am waiiting for my assessment , my sdd ( not genetically related) has it and 2 of my close school friends have children with it severely enough so that they can't attend mainstream.
Obviously several members of my family have it as it is genetic but it does seem odd that my 2 close school friends ( who dont have asd) have children with it.

Also is the finding that younger fathers are more likely to have children with severe autism not more likely to be that we are dealing with several different diseases with different causes here?

(1) The definition of autism has changed over the years -- and I don't just mean the natural language definition, but the actual medical definition used by psychologists. It now covers a much broader range of conditions than it did forty years ago.
(2) People are now far too quick to diagnose autism based on very little and I don't think it's a healthy trend. You see it here on mumsnet frequently. One of my son's teachers felt my son may be autistic, partially based on a stupid face he would pull she thought it was some kind of episode -- to be fair, it was a pretty stupid face and one that he would pull when he couldn't think of something witty or funny to say. The teachers then began to see other signs and start treating his behaviour (which was in fact perfectly understandable if they had just stopped to ask him what was bothering or worrying him) as just his autism, without getting to the actual root of it.

Well partly it’s merging diagnosis. Autism is now a catch all for several previously separate diagnosis, and of course there are a huge number who “self diagnose” which would have been unacceptable even a decade or so ago. Then there are the large numbers of people who wouldn’t have survived early birth or other medical challenges.
I think the key to understanding if autism is on the increase is to look at the most severe presentations and see if those individuals are on the increase. Anecdotally I would say that they are BUT if we adjust for the children who would not have survived in previous generations are there more cases?

I think non verbal autism in particular is more prevalent now. I have 3 friends with non verbal children.

If you read older books, e.g. Dickens, you get descriptions of people who are "eccentric". Viewing those people through modern eyes, at least some of them are autistic. I know that's fiction but presumably he's drawing on really life people he knew.

There's also the sort of people who sought out some level of seclusion or isolation, like monks or hermits. I would suspect some of them were autistic.

This suggests that it's certainly not a new phenomenon, just that diagnosing it is.

I think maybe though it's more likely now that ND people will form relationships and have children than it used to be - I suspect in the past a lot of ND people would have been considered "unmarriagable". So maybe that's one factor.

I agree with that. My colleague does research in a very specific aspect of autism and she was at a conference recently where it was quoted that 1 in 25 children have ASD in NI.

It is all over my family in the previous generation, all undiagnosed but very obviously there, and there are loads of kids in my family in this generation too but even still the numbers in my son’s schools (my son is diagnosed with ASD) are way higher.

My mother would have rather died than have anybody think there was something 'wrong' with my brother.

Another one (and me) were regularly screamed and hit with 'WHY CAN'T YOU BE NORMAL', 'YOU'LL BE PUT IN A HOME IF PEOPLE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE LIKE', 'WHY CAN'T I HAVE ALL NORMAL CHILDREN LIKE YOUR SISTER AND BROTHER' screamed at us.

I think she was pretty ashamed. Especially when she refused any assessment.

I read on here recently (was shocked, never heard of it before) that a correlation has been found between overweight mothers and autism in their children. I won’t link any studies as I’m no scientist and don’t know which one would support this idea the best, but if you Google “autism linked to maternal weight” a lot of different ones come up.

Obviously as a population we are getting fatter, so it seems that this could be a significant factor in it.

YANBU. I think there's an increase in incidence not diagnoses. I suspect it's environmental as well as genetic. No evidence but hope I grow old enough to find out more over the next few decades.

I think this applies at the higher functioning end.
The world is more stimulating; "bigger" louder, brighter, more expectations. There is an increase in triggers beyond coping capacity. I think this exposes people around the diagnosis threshold who previously coped with life.

The younger generation of DS's paternal family (inc DS) are getting diagnosed, but traits run deep through the family. Fortunately they have a tendency towards being very mathematical/ technically minded and tend to find sucessful careers in computing or engineering and find interesting jobs and have peaceful, routine calm home lives with little external socialising. DH has a disproportionately high number of batchelor cousins for their age range
The great-uncle still on the family farm has many traits, but a quiet, solo rural life on the family farm has dodged many triggers.

It was the pressure cooker of y2 SATS that exceeded DS's coping abilities and triggered the assessment then diagnosis. Plus me being aware of the possibility and concerned that something wasn't right.

It is also easier for higher functioning people to meet and connect than 20+ years ago.

We're catching up on diagnoses not made in childhood. In my later years of secondary school when classes mixed more, I ended up hanging out with the quirky "alternatives" A few friends are getting assessed/ diagnosed in our 40s, and with hindsight, there were quite a few with strong traits.

At the lower functioning end, there didn't tend to be too many questions asked about learning/ cognitive disability. For my 1960s relative, it was simply "brain damaged at birth, do you want to put him in an institution and get on with your life?" He stayed in the family home until early adulthood before moving to a community residential setting for the rest of his life. He wasn't "hidden", his care needs just meant that he wasn't very "visible" in public spaces. He actually hit a sweet spot in the resource provision where community based care was becoming favourable, respite was there for families and there were decently resourced day centres with transport.
With his level of care need, as long as that support was avaliable, the diagnosis was a bit of a moot point anyway in terms of quality of life.

There are generally more children with severe disabilities because of surviving premature or difficult labours and children survive with complex health and care needs for longer because of medical advances. This means more resourcing in an era of "cost savings" and there are more children being pushed into mainstream settings that don't meet their needs.

I think this is true. There is a long list of reasons why people were locked up in 'institutions' in 18th/19th centuries, which include a lot of what we now recognise as ND behaviour. As well as things like pmt 😔

Just wondering how c sections would cause autism biologically? I will have to find some peer reviewed litetature on that one!

I got asked about the birth at my duaghters diagnosis and wasn't sure why that was. Whether to rule out other considtions or if they're seeing a link?

Years ago lots of families had a member they considered odd or was shoved into a home and forgotten about.

This is a really interesting thread. I'm a Physics teacher, and I've definitely noticed an increase in children with autism in my classes in the last 10 years. (I teach 14 to 18 years old.)

I agree that modern schooling has made a difference. I think how low demand school was for me in the 1980s.
I know going into year 7 now is a crisis point for a lot of children.
I would also say out of school as well, there was a huge amount of downtime. There was much more time to allow yourself to learn to manage. There was little pressure to do things, I hardly knew anyone who did any activities outside school, just brownies etc.

My mum worked with disabled children in the 1980s. I now realise lots of them were autistic but it wasn’t called that. Also none of them went to school, just home and respite centres for activities.

I agree. I've been a primary school teacher for a long time. Children with very clear additional needs used to be few and far between in mainstream schools but in my one-form entry school for the past five years we have had at least one profoundly autistic child start in Reception class, plus two or three others who have very strong traits and are quickly referred for assessment. There are barely any special school places available, partly due to funding issues but also it seems to increased prevalence. We have a special school in the town where I work which has been here for decades but now does not have sufficient space for children who need it.

And that's only those with the most obvious/profound needs. As you go further up the school you start to notice those who are better at masking.

There’s evidence that the father’s age may be a factor, but it’s also possible that he’s ND himself, hence being single for longer than younger men

Also, possible that the mum and dad are both ND, and meeting each other online and having children, whereas in previous generations, they might not have had the social skills to form relationships and have children.
So they are quite likely to have children who are autistic, increasing the number of children with autism

Obviously better diagnosis and understanding, and more likely to be seen in mainstream rather than being kept away from society

It’s fairly complicated, afaik. There is some data that seems to suggest that advanced parental age may be a risk factor IIRC.

there‘s also research suggesting that the „factor“ of paternal age be dependant on a child’s familial risk factor IIRC.

edit:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2724463/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7396152/

Yes this. It’s the rapid increase in severe/profound ASD that really stands out.

Thanks for that, though it seems to be saying that it's not a definite thing at all. I guess more research is being carried out as we speak and that may be clearer. Appreciate the link🙂

I wonder if there is some element of misdiagnosis of mental health issues in very young children, particularly following covid lockdowns.

there is also an epidemic of fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes huge issues to the children affected and is very hard to diagnose. It’s often associated with mothers drinking throughout pregnancy which is a taboo but actually, there’s very little research and binge drinking is really common in the generation that’s child bearing age.

im very late diagnosed ADHD. I don’t think that people were even aware of this when I was at school. I was just a massive underachiever and unhappy and lonely. My father most likely had it.

I think mostly they were seen as quiet. Loners. Essentric

Maybe they went on to manual or creative jobs.

My builder clearly has adhd. Doesn't stop chatting. Was a really naughty kid left school at 14 but Now running a business and doing well at it. I Bet He would
Burn out if he were at school now as our schools are
Too one size fits all Rigid

People are not all one size. Never have been

My son is severely autistic, he's 14 non verbal etc
We have four special school, s in my LEA two primary ,one of those caters for children who moderate to severe learning disabilities, most kids also have autism
The second primary school caters forc kids with severe to profound learning disabilities most also have autism
The two secondary schools are the same
All four school have doubled in capacity over the past 10/15:years .