Posted on 12/17/2013 1:13:29 PM PST by Theoria
A long-awaited study has confirmed the fears of Somali residents in Minneapolis that their children suffer from higher rates of a disabling form of autism compared with other children there.
The study — by the University of Minnesota, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the research and advocacy group Autism Speaks — found high rates of autism in two populations: About one Somali child in 32 and one white child in 36 in Minneapolis were on the autism spectrum.
The national average is one child in 88, according to Coleen A. Boyle, who directs the C.D.C.’s Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
But the Somali children were less likely than the whites to be “high-functioning” and more likely to have I.Q.s below 70. (The average I.Q. score is 100.)
The study offered no explanation of the statistics.
“We do not know why more Somali and white children were identified,” said Amy S. Hewitt, the project’s primary investigator and director of the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. “This project was not designed to answer these questions.”
The results echoed those of a Swedish study published last year finding that children from immigrant families in Stockholm — many of them Somali — were more likely to have autism with intellectual disabilities.
The Minneapolis study also found that Somali children with autism received their diagnoses late. Age 5 was the average, while autism and learning disabilities can be diagnosed as early as age 2, and children get the most benefit from behavioral treatment when it is started early.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
***their children suffer from higher rates of a disabling form of autism compared with other children there. ***
THREE words.
SSI CRAZY CHECKS!
Run of the mill mental retardation is now classified as ‘on the autism spectrum’.
You may be on to something there.
Coast to Coast AM had someone on a week or so back who speculated that a lack of vitamin D might be behind the onset of autism in the past three decades.
He posited that the development and increasing use of sunscreen was preventing D from being created and absorbed by the skin, and also mentioned that people with darker skins were at greater risk.
Minnesota is pretty far north, and Somalis do have darker skin - might be worth more study to see how much time these children spend out of doors in the warmer months.
Hard to say from the CDC. I only know when the brain is manourished, the body follows.
This may be related to another shocking correlation:
“Autism Linked with Receiving Government Benefits”
There are no hyenas here to treat them.
Immigrants get inoculations when they enter the country. You have a very good study group comparing them against the native population and the local.
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