Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl
the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects,
then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and
observations.
Today's article shows the newest "current" rate of incidence of autism in children, along with the incidence rate in the last ten years or so. I put "current" in quotation marks there because the data set they're using is from 2014... Apparently this is a common issue, since the very first analysis they have on record here uses data from 2000 and 2002, but was only analyzed and put into a report in 2007.
Y'know how it's been obnoxious and impossible to remember what the exact number was for how many neurotypical people to one autistic person? It was 1 in 150, then 1 in 110, then 1 in 68, and all that? And people were having hissy fits because the numbers kept rising?
Yeah, they're still rising. We're now up to 1 in 59. So in roughly any 60 children in the US, one of them will be autistic. If they're all boys, you only need to line up 39 children before you'll find one with an autism diagnosis. The female incidence rate is what's reining in the statistics, because apparently you need to line up 153 girls before you'll find one with an autism diagnosis.
Personally, I don't think we're as rare as the statistics think. I think it's more likely that our diagnostic materials and professionals are geared towards diagnosing and treating boys, and until people make a better effort at learning how autism manifests in girls, this is how it will be. But that's a grave disservice to people like me, everywhere.
Also wildly under-diagnosed, but apparently starting to even out in recent years: children of racial and ethnic minorities. This is probably due to lacking the same resources and opportunities as their white counterparts, rather than any innate differences. A report from the CDC states that minority children tend to be identified as autistic years later than their white peers.
A final note about all this: these are statistics that specifically only track children. Apparently little thought, still, is being given to those children when they grow up. But time won't stop for us, and every child grows up. In the meantime, more of us are apparently being born than ever. Autistic people are here to stay. Help us live in the world... but also teach your friends, family, and peers to accept us as we are. We won't disappear in a few years, suddenly invisible because we grew up. We live here, too. And we're not going anywhere.
Today's article shows the newest "current" rate of incidence of autism in children, along with the incidence rate in the last ten years or so. I put "current" in quotation marks there because the data set they're using is from 2014... Apparently this is a common issue, since the very first analysis they have on record here uses data from 2000 and 2002, but was only analyzed and put into a report in 2007.
Y'know how it's been obnoxious and impossible to remember what the exact number was for how many neurotypical people to one autistic person? It was 1 in 150, then 1 in 110, then 1 in 68, and all that? And people were having hissy fits because the numbers kept rising?
Yeah, they're still rising. We're now up to 1 in 59. So in roughly any 60 children in the US, one of them will be autistic. If they're all boys, you only need to line up 39 children before you'll find one with an autism diagnosis. The female incidence rate is what's reining in the statistics, because apparently you need to line up 153 girls before you'll find one with an autism diagnosis.
Personally, I don't think we're as rare as the statistics think. I think it's more likely that our diagnostic materials and professionals are geared towards diagnosing and treating boys, and until people make a better effort at learning how autism manifests in girls, this is how it will be. But that's a grave disservice to people like me, everywhere.
Also wildly under-diagnosed, but apparently starting to even out in recent years: children of racial and ethnic minorities. This is probably due to lacking the same resources and opportunities as their white counterparts, rather than any innate differences. A report from the CDC states that minority children tend to be identified as autistic years later than their white peers.
A final note about all this: these are statistics that specifically only track children. Apparently little thought, still, is being given to those children when they grow up. But time won't stop for us, and every child grows up. In the meantime, more of us are apparently being born than ever. Autistic people are here to stay. Help us live in the world... but also teach your friends, family, and peers to accept us as we are. We won't disappear in a few years, suddenly invisible because we grew up. We live here, too. And we're not going anywhere.
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