[Apple Pan Dowdy]

I have heard that there is a huge rise in the number of autistic kids today. A couple of weeks ago, Neal Boortz (Atlanta WSB Radio host)was blaming it on parents just looking for a reason to blame when their kids misbehave or are not perfect. Why else would there be so many cases popping up now, he said. Well, perhaps this is the reason??

[hopespringseternal]

Well, perhaps this is the reason??

Kids are diagnosed with whatever is getting the most funding at the moment. ADD, autism, etc.

[Damocles]

He may have mistaken the rise in ADD or ADHD kids to lack of parental discipline, but trust me you cannot blame autism on lack of parenting.

It's a maddening disease with no apparent cause. Watching your child mentally disintegrate before your unbelieving eyes is not easily explanied away. If Boortz said this than he is either ignorant or an idiot.

[dogbyte12]

I hope Neal Boortz was talking about ADD, and not autism. ADD is way over diagnosed. Autism is something completely different. The rates are going up. I work in special education, and some of the families have it so hard. I worked with a kid who had 5 siblings, all autistic. Yet, each was unique. 2 were severely autistic, yet 3 were of the milder, somewhat functioning form. The 2 severe kids had normal intelligence, but were so autistic, that they couldn't function in society. The poor parents of autistic kids have a divorce rate that you would not imagine.

The latest research, from mri and autopsies of autistic children shows that one part of the brain of severely autistic kids is well overgrown, leaving another section undersized, with no space to grow. Theories are that this is what is doing the damage. There is no proof of why this happens though.

[aruanan]

Why else would there be so many cases popping up now, he said.

Changing definitions. Broadened categories. Certain conditions that were formerly considered one thing are now considered something else. It's another example of the lumper/splitter approach to species definition. The lumpers' approach would increase the number of life-forms in a particular species. The splitters' approach would increase the number of species in a particular genus.