Posted on 07/26/2015 7:05:50 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers at the Penn State University analyzed the data of enrollment of children in special education of 11 years and found out that the number has tripled which were 93,624 in 2000 to 419,647 in 2010. The researchers obtained the information data from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. An average of 6.2 million children was enrolled in special education classes between 2000 and 2010, with a 331 percent increase in the prevalence of autism during the decade.
The study was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. The study revealed that such high increase may be because of the diagnostic reclassification from common comorbid features such as the intellectual disability. Also many children do not just fall into just one category and have multiple disorders. The researchers also say that genetics also play a vital role in this increase as it can be hereditary.
According to a rough estimate about 65 percent of the increase can be attributed to reclassification of children from intellectual disability to autism. Among the 9 years old children 59 percent increase in autism is due to the reassignment and by the age of 15 a 97 percent rise in autism is because of reclassification
(Excerpt) Read more at thestandarddaily.com ...
Why am I NOT SURPRISED - after all it means MILLIONS of new ‘customers’ for the people too stupid to pass a math class in college.
65 percent of the increase? What is the percentage of increase though? Autism is shooting through the roof even if only 45% of the increase were counted.
As always...follow the money.
I’m dubious. The DSM-V criterion for an autism diagnosis (like the DSM-IV-R and DSM-IV criteria for Asperger syndrome and for autism, which have under the new classification been deemed to be the same disorder, differing only in intensity) specifically require that the social impairment be in excess of that expected on the basis of intellectual (dis)ability. Proper autism evaluations if there is any question about the subject’s intelligence require administration of an IQ test.
(I know these things because my wife is a licensed psychologist with a private practice specializing diagnostic evaluation of children and adolescents and gets most of her business from requests for autism evaluations.)
I’m not sure “shooting through the roof” is an appropriate metaphor for an increase in a very low incidence disorder.
Actually, schools get money for any special ed classification, so mental retardation (or as the psychiatrists now tell us to call it “intellectual disability”) and autism both get them money.
The only place I see a skewing in terms of financial incentives is in the way private insurers like BC/BS treat them: evaluation for intellectual disability is usually not covered, while evaluation for autism is. (The bean-counters think the schools should diagnose mental retardation, but think autism is a “medical” problem, even thought the psychiatrists list both as disorders in the DSM-V.)
In my area on talk radio during the day there are public service ads about autism running CONSTANTLY, claiming that “one in 68 children” is born with autism.
One in sixty-eight!
Until a few years ago my sister was a public school teacher in a rural area for 20 years...classes averaging 20-25 kids...I asked her how many “autistic” students she had.
None, she said, as far as she knew. She had plenty who were squirmy or lazy or who just enjoyed causing a stir...but autism? Nosirreebob...
Hummm......
About One in Ten California Students Receives Special Education Services. About 686,000 students with disabilities (SWDs) receive special education services in California, comprising about 10 percent of the state’s public school enrollment. Specific learning disabilities—including dyslexia—are the most common diagnoses requiring special education services (affecting about 4 percent of all K–12 students), followed by speech and language impairments. While the overall prevalence of students with autism and chronic health problems still is relatively rare (each affecting 1 percent or less of all public school students), the number of students diagnosed with these disabilities has increased notably over the past decade.
http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2013/edu/special-ed-primer/special-ed-primer-010313.aspx
This can be filed under: Duh !
Well, duh!
Sorry, Popman, didn’t mean to steal your thunder. I should read the comments before posting my own.
Many people have observed the increasingly-broad definition of “autism” in recent years.
45% of the 311% increase is not attributed to the expansion of criteria for ASD. That isn’t alarming to you?
I predict that in less than one year gov’t background checks will deny firearms to anyone with autism.
Couple that with the phony bi-polar/bi-polar depression nonsense and... viola! A huge chunk of citizens who will never be able to protect themselves or their families.
So when the SHTF they’ll be SOL.
Well, duh.
Same con game as ADD (repackaged as ADHD)
I had a retired school teacher neighbor go postal on me yesterday. I mean I was stunned how she lit into me. Banged her fist on the table and got right in my face almost screaming at me. A 73 year old woman. Yikes.
All because, when the subject of another neighbor’s child being on Ritalin entered the conversation, I said the school system was essentially a drug pusher for putting 2% of the nation’s children on psychotropic drugs.
I have made it clear in the past that we home schooled because of our differences with the school system. She’s never been too keen on hearing that. Takes all of it quite personally. I kind of wonder if the fact that our daughter was highly successful (on scholarship) in college and has done well since also is seen as a criticism of public schools. Fine with me, because it is.
Math is the bane of my existence. I once took a test to see what I would be good at, what my strengths were. It gave me interesting results. I scored in the Superior range in language skills and business; I scored in the moron category in math and that test with different shapes.
So, there is no in between with me. I can do basic math stuff, adding, subtracting, multiplying, division. My downfall started with my first Algebra class. So, not stupid, just not very good with manipulating numbers.
“My downfall started with my first Algebra class. So, not stupid, just not very good with manipulating numbers.”
Actually it sounds like you were very good with numbers - it was letters that tripped you up, as in “x”.
Yes, my second daughter was diagnosed with a "learning disability" in kindergarten. They wanted to take her out of class a few days a week to work with a specialist. My husband hit the roof when I told him. I knew that her being classified so early would follow her throughout her school career. I said no. They argued. I removed her from the public school and put her into a Montessori kindergarten and she did great.
Those running the Montessori school recognized that young children develop at different rates and that includes being advanced in one area and not even at par in another area. She mentioned a boy who was a very bright student; but, he was unable to even pull his pants up after going to the bathroom. They took that in stride, as it was just part of being a kindergartener.
These particular teachers at the public school refused to help kids button their jackets or tied their shoes (these are 5yr olds!). If you asked them, as I did, to make sure that the child put her jacket on when she went outside because it looked to me like she might be catching a cold; I received a letter back from the teacher telling me all the things I was supposed to be doing because they didn't have time to do all of this. About a year or so later, I was speaking to some of my daughters teachers at a Catholic elementary school; and, I mentioned this kindergarten teacher and they were shocked. Their pov was that these were things that you just did as a kindergarten teacher. Tying shoes, helping with jackets, helping with buttoning or zipping jackets. All part of the job. But not to this particular public school teacher. AND, this was the teacher that the parents who knew the staff, wanted for their children. What was the other teacher like?
My daughter is the same.
She can learn languages so fast it is scary .... savant like. And she is an excellent writer and debater ... but higher math ... not so much.
Unfortunately we live in a society that doesn’t recognize that people have different talents and skills (as well as weaknesses).
I’ve always been good at math but can’t learn a different language to save my life (and I’ve tried many times). I think brains are just wired differently.
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