I don’t remember any kids who were “non-verbal” when I was growing up, nor do I remember any of the head-banging or kids wearing ear muffs.
Something in the environment has definitely changed and it’s not iPads or anything like that because it starts too early in life.
If you ever work around these kids you realize something is going terribly wrong, and it cannot be just genetics because you cannot have a sudden, worldwide genetic epidemic (the United States is not alone in finding an increased diagnosis rate, it’s even higher in some other countries).
I can name 6 kids I went to school with K thru 12 who were “sick”,( diabetes, allergies, )
nobody considered autistic. that wasn’t a thing.
Nowadays all I see are anxious, screaming kids.( littles)
I think some of it is genetics- the parents /grandparents messed around with pharmaceutical drugs in their youth and messed up their chromasomes. Passed this on and voila, the kids ain’t right. it’s just a guess, of course. Makes as much sense as anything else.