Autism much more common than reported?

[Anonnyno]

Hi - I’m a parent of a primary school child with a (high functioning apparently) ASD diagnosis. I’d read stats that 1 in 100 people are meant to be on the spectrum, however I just realised that DC’s class suggests this is either a gross underestimation or they’re a freak occurrence.

There’s 26 kids in the year. 5 (including DC) have been diagnosed with ASD. A further two have been diagnosed with ADHD.

It just occurred to me that this means one in five kids in child’s class are autistic, let alone neurodiverse (which would be an even higher prevalence).

It’s not just DC’s year either - there’s a similar prevalence across the year groups.

Do you think our school just happens to be based in an unusually highly neurodiverse catchment area? Or could ASD actually far more common than is reported currently?

There have been reports of high rates of autism in Silicon Valley. Basically the computer jobs have attracted a lot of socially awkward nerds (diagnosed or undiagnosed autistic) who then married each other and had a high percentage of kids with autism. So it could be to do with the type of jobs or social mix in the local area.

There’s only 2 openly autistic in a year group of 90 where I am. Obviously I don’t know health details of everyone. Year 4.

It's been under diagnosed for years and still is. The more people who get diagnosed the more schools will have to accommodate. The more they have to do that the sooner they will realise that they have to build in these accommodations and just let students choose what they need. So that one day no one will need an official diagnoses.

I've read that the true rate is somewhere between 1 in 15 and 1 in 30, so roughly 1-2 a class. However a lot of those may be undiagnosed.