to ask this without expecting a backlash?

[Fleurflowering]

I know that people will accuse me of being goady etc, but I would like to ask these questions without a tirade of hate being posted at me. I'm genuinely ignorant about this and want to understand it better.

I was born in 1978. When I was at school, there was a flicker of a mention of autism, but it didn't seem to be commonplace.

Did children have autism? Did ADHD exist then? Or are these new problems and why have they arisen?

Every school class seems to have children with SEND - autism being very common. But, when I was at school, there were "Remedial" classes, but behaviour was nowhere near as bad as it seems to be nowadays and teachers didn't need to differentiate lessons like they have to now. I hear so many people saying that their kids are on the spectrum, or that they themselves have autism.

I also don't remember any school refusers. Is this a new mental health symptom, or are children more autonomous and possibly less resilient nowadays?

I know I'll be flamed, but I'm not denying these conditions exist. I'm trying to learn whether they are new or not.

A more inclusive society and people with autism having children, because funnily enough we don't practice eugenics. And there being lots of different types recognised and diagnosed.

My DS has autism, I'm fairly certain I do, and when I think of some of my relatives it's obvious they have it too. I work in a care home and some of my residents are clearly on the spectrum, but were never diagnosed.

High functioning auties were called 'quirky' or 'unique'. Profound auties were chained to a radiator in an institution. That's how it was hidden. It's not that they didn't exist.

When my son was still non verbal at 5 in 1990 I mentioned the possibility of autism to the paediatrician. She told me that she had only ever seen 2 incidences in her 40 year career.
When I became a teaching assistant in 1996 I had to explain what exactly autism was to teaching staff and assistants.

I'm 50 and still in touch on social media with a few kids I was at school with. One of them recently shared his ADHD diagnosis. At primary school, he was the classic 'bright naughty kid' - clearly clever, but under-performed and constantly in trouble. He would have benefited massively, I'm sure, from some support and understanding at school. He's successful now and works as a business coach and consultant, but he'd be the first to admit that it was only really through luck that he found his niche in his 20s after going through his entire education being told he was lazy, naughty, disorganised etc.

I'm dyspraxic, and didn't find out until my 30s. I was such a high achiever academically that my clumsiness, messiness, lateness etc was kind of treated as 'absent-minded professor' behaviour; I'd get told off for being disorganised and scatty and constantly told I was a lazy and 'not trying' in PE lessons etc but because I was doing well in terms of academic work it got glossed over. If anyone had acknowledged dyspraxia in those days (my school 'didn't believe in' dyslexia, even, so there's no way anyone was going to know what dyspraxia was, still less spot it) it would have made a huge positive difference to me.

High-functioning neurodiversity has always existed. There were definitely ND kids in your school year. They just weren't acknowledged or supported as such.

Typo in my post - it was 2019-2020. So only 6 years ago

This really resonates.

I went to a village school, open fields outside, very orderly and quiet inside. The classrooms were fairly bare, the odd alphabet on the wall here and there, but not much in the way of decorations, etc. Work was done in silence, at single desks.

Now it's over stimulation, all the time.

Just a thought.

Schools used to have desks facing the teacher at the front. There may be a single display of work in the room or the corridor.

Rules were strict and ridged.

Now classrooms have loads of colour, displays, pictures, possibly maps and timelines.

Children seem to sit around a table so half are facing away from the teacher, if the teacher is at the front.

I'm not saying this has caused a rise in autism / ASD, but the old fashioned classroom suited some people better.

Our secondary school is set up exactly as you describe. Most are. We have too many kids for any other seating configuration even if we wanted to.

My dermatologist used to stand balanced on the outside of his feet and stare at the floor while he talked to mum and I (I was a child). He’d definitely be diagnosed if he were growing up now! I hope his life wasn’t too difficult. He would have been in mainstream school and academic to end up as a dermatologist.