I work as a psychologist, thus, I find this article interesting. Why? Very simply, I had noticed a lot of younger people coming to my clinic with diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Basically, ASD is now a diagnosis that covers Autism and Aspergers. In general, Autism is usually at the lower end of functioning while Aspergers is usually at the higher end of functioning. My understanding that, in the USA, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is also sometimes seen as synonymous with ASD. My opinion is that it should not really be the case when you consider the diagnostic criteria for ASD and PDD-NOS.
Alright, so why is there increasing incidence of ASD? According to the article, "The reasons for the rise were unclear, but the CDC said the criteria used to diagnose autism spectrum disorder and the methods used to collect data have not changed."
Other reasons could include:
- There is increasing evidence to suggest genetic inheritance of ASD.
- There are also proponents who think that vaccination can cause ASD.
- A lot of the time, I see young people who were diagnosed as having ASD. However, there does not appear to be sufficient ASD traits to warrant the diagnosis. Thus, I hypothesise that diagnosis is becoming possibly sloppy.
- Sometimes social security-like systems can lead to increase of such diagnoses. For instance, I was advised that if a child has a diagnosis of ASD in Australia, the carer qualifies for $15k a year in pension. Thus, I get a lot of calls from carers asking for assessments to ascertain if their child qualifies for ASD diagnosis.
- Sometimes education institutions are unable to provide more 1:1 time for the student without ASD diagnosis. There is no doubt that ASD is difficult to manage in the classroom or otherwise. Nevertheless, professionals who diagnose this should be judicious about this because I fear that other children without the diagnosis may not get the extra help that they need as all the funding is diverted away from other children who also need help. From a psychology perspective, I also think that the child with the diagnosis but is not truly ASD may delay getting the treatment badly needed. Thus, I merely am advocating for responsible diagnosis.
Having spoken to various professionals of varying professional backgrounds, I can say anecdotally that there appears to be an increase in the ASD diagnosis. However, we are noticing some sloppiness is some cases. Thus, it is hard to say for certain if this rise is genuine and is a worldwide trend. Alternatively, is it simply about how services and social security are funded? Afterall, we do know that there are changes in social trends when government changes policies.
I do think that if there are indeed some rises in incidences of ASD worldwide, it should be ascertained if these rises are genuine. If indeed so, governments need to consider how to fund and manage this due to significant struggles within the family, school and community. Who should do this? Who else other than the World Health Organisation (WHO) which may be the only organisation that is able to launch such a widespread research.
On this note, I am going to end here. I do think that maybe I can help by putting up web resources that I had been looking at that I feel are promising for families to explore and implement. If I do add that in, I shall certainly update this section of this post to include a link for readers. Thank you for reading.
