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christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
Autism is a label feared by parents, a chal-
lenge for educators, the subject of movies and
books, often misunderstood, and sometimes
caught up in the swirl of emotional controversy.
So, what drives the need for greater recognition
and has autism reached epidemic proportions?
According to research estimates by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
one out of 88 children has been identified with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with boys
(one in 54) about five times more likely to be
diagnosed than girls (one in 252).
1
April 2nd
of every year is now known as World Autism
and Awareness Day, and Light It Up Blue is a
global initiative that was created to help get the
message out.
Dr. James Coplan, a neurodevelopmental
pediatrician from the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine, maintains the increase is
primarily due to changes in diagnostic criteria.
He states the way current statistics are reviewed
is directly related to the number of children who
receive services under the heading of ASD. Prior
to 1975, there were few, if any, educational rights
for “handicapped” children, so no definitive
baseline exists. However, Dr. Martha Herbert,
a pediatric neurologist at Harvard Research
School of Medicine, believes otherwise. Her team
examined the rise in rates as a function of the
change in diagnostic criteria from the
Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III
(DSM-III)
to the
DSM-IV
. Yet, broadening of
the criteria still accounts for only 400% of the
1,200% increase from the 1980s, leaving a stag-
gering escalation of 800% in the last 25 years not
attributable to changes in diagnostic benchmarks.
Much of the debate centers on
incidence
verses
prevalence
rates. Incidence refers to the
number of new cases that emerge in the birthrate
of a population. Prevalence is the percentage of
a population affected by a disease or disorder. To
qualify as an ASD epidemic, the incidence based
on birthrate must be determined, and this is not
known with absolute certainty. Nevertheless,
research has clearly shown a significantly higher
prevalence of ASD among the present genera-
tion, indicating an “explosion of ASD diagnosis,”
but not necessarily an epidemic.
Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms of ASD vary from person-to-person,
generally falling into three categories: social
