My feeling was that a surge in diagnosis could be (most likely in my opinion earlier today) tied to an increase in financial incentives. I was guessing. I could have guessed wrong...
The real jump in cases could be 'better recognition of autism' or maybe an environmental cause or many other things... not everything is liberals trying to gin the system. I've grown cynical. I'm sorry about that...
As much as I would love to think there was not a financial incentive, I can’t help but think we were ignored because there was no money in it.
But I believe we have become worse at helping the ASD problem, especially in the realm of my case. I was easily “fixed”. If there was money in it, where would I be? I hate to think.
My experience with the full-blown autism cases like Muggs mentions is that we spend all our time trying to keep them quiet instead of realizing their potential. People like Muggs grandson may have been the great artists and poets prior to 1900.
The abilities of autistic people I have known borders on the supernatural. A 6 year-old who can exactly replicate an Elmers Glue bottle without looking at it. A kid on my son’s football team who can’t line up as a wide-receiver properly but can rattle off all NFL stats for the last 8 years.