New CDC Study Finds Rise in Autism Rates

A new CDC study was reported recently in the Chicago Tribune.  Read the Story The alarming data found that around 1 in 100 children, 8 years old, in the US have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

More surprising were the results of a CDC and the Health Resources and Services Administration survey.  Parents of 78,000 children ages 3 to 17 were asked whether a health care worker or doctor had ever told them their child had autism spectrum disorder.  Parents of 1 in 91 children said yes and also said their child currently has the disorder. For boys, the figure was 1 in 58.  All these number work out to mean that approximately 1% of American children will be affected by ASD.

Before we go into “panic mode” it’s important to take a step back.  First, this data does not necessarily mean that more kids are autistic than ever before, but that perhaps identification and diagnosis have improved such that we “seeing” more cases.  It’s also important to look carefully at phone surveys, the data can be valuable but it is open to inaccuracies as opposed to other research that looks at medical records, health worker interviews etc.

So what does this mean?

This is a good wake-up call for those outside the ASD community.  It’s interesting that most parents would not concieve of driving with their 1 year old child not in a saftey seat, yet the odds of dying in a car wreck are 1 in 18,585.  If we can take the time and effort to buy a $100 car seat and strap it in the back of the minivan, we can take the time to get educated about ASD.

One thing we do know, the early an autism disorder can be identified in a child, the better and more effective the treatment will be.  To that end, it’s imperitive that all parents, especially those with young kids, know the signs of autism.  The CDC website is a great place to start:

CDC Resource – Signs of Autism

Second, with the more and more parents raising autistic kids its important for us, their friends, neighbors etc to do whatever we can to be supportive.  Chances are we all have someone we can think of that has an autistic child.  How nice it would be if we went out of our way to cook them a meal, mow the grass.  If you know the family well enough, maybe offer to help watch the kids so mom and dad can get out of the house for an hour or two and have a break.  We’re all busy, but it doesn’t take much to help out, and it certainly makes a difference.

Many hands make light work.  If we all get informed and involved we’ll find a better life for ourselves and our kids.