1 chance in 62 for boys and one chance in 189 for girls at birth.
Some basic facts of this blog article are from:
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
I personally think bonding with your children from birth until 3 or 4 and after and not exposing them to TV or Computers or Computer games might be helpful too. But, that is just me.
CDC: 1 in 68 U.S. children has autism - CNN.com
www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/health/cdc-autism/
5 hours ago - (CNN) -- One in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 30% increase from 1 in 88 two years ago, according to a new report ...
CNN
CDC: 1 in 68 U.S. children has autism
updated 4:34 PM EDT, Thu March 27, 2014
Your video will begin momentarily.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The new number is a 30% increase from two years ago
- Autism remains more common in boys than in girls
- The report doesn't say why the incidence of autism is rising
This newest estimate is
based on the CDC's evaluation of health and educational records of all
8-year-old children in 11 states: Alabama, Wisconsin, Colorado,
Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona, Maryland, North Carolina, Utah and
New Jersey.
The incidence of autism
ranged from a low of 1 in 175 children in Alabama to a high of 1 in 45
in New Jersey, according to the CDC.
Children with autism
continue to be overwhelmingly male. According to the new report, the CDC
estimates 1 in 42 boys has autism, 4.5 times as many as girls (1 in
189).
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"We look at all of the
characteristics of autism," says Coleen Boyle, the director of the CDC's
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
"So we look at the age in
which they're identified. We look at their earliest diagnosis. We look
at co-occuring conditions that these children might have, other
developmental disabilities, whether or not they have intellectual
disability, so essentially their IQ."
The largest increase was
seen in children who have average or above-average intellectual ability,
according to the CDC. The study found nearly half of children with an
autism spectrum disorder have average or above-average intellectual
ability -- an IQ above 85 -- compared with one-third of children a
decade ago.
The report is not
designed to say why more children are being diagnosed with autism, Boyle
says. But she believes increased awareness in identifying and
diagnosing children contributes to the higher numbers.
More than 5,300 children are represented in the data contained in the new report, she says.
"We comb through
records. We accumulate all that information and then each one of those
records is reviewed by a specialist to make sure that that child meets
our autism case definition," says Boyle. The definition of autism is
unchanged from the 2012 report.
One thing that hasn't
changed over the years is that children are still being diagnosed late.
According to the report, the average age of diagnosis is still over age
4, even though autism can be diagnosed by age 2.
The earlier a child is
diagnosed with autism, the better their chances of overcoming the
difficulties that come with the disorder.
"It's not a cure, but it
changes the trajectory," says Dr. Gary Goldstein, president and CEO of
the Kennedy Krieger Institute and professor of neurology at Johns
Hopkins University.
"We need to continue our
efforts to educate the health care community and general public to
recognize the developmental problems associated with ASD and other
developmental disorders at earliest age possible, so that intervention
can be initiated, bad habits can be avoided and families will know
what's wrong with their child," says Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric
neurologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland who
diagnoses and treats children with autism.
This new report is based on 2010 data, when the children were 8 years old (born in 2002).
Since 2000, the CDC has
based its autism estimates on surveillance reports from its Autism and
Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.
Every two years,
researchers count how many 8-year-olds have autism in about a dozen
communities across the nation. (The number of sites had ranged from six
to 14 over the years, depending on the available funding in a given
year.)
In 2000 and 2002, the
autism estimate was about 1 in 150 children. Two years later 1 in 125
8-year-olds was believed to have autism. In 2006, the number grew to 1
in 110, and then the number went up to 1 in 88 based on 2008 data.
Boyle acknowledges these
statistics are not necessarily representative of the entire United
States because the information is drawn from 11 states, not a national
cross-section.
But she adds that the 11
areas represent 9% of all 8-year old children in the United States in
2010, which Boyle says gives the CDC a "good picture of what's going on
in those communities with regards to autism."
However, experts such as
Wiznitzer and Goldstein are concerned that the new CDC report is not
describing the same autism that was present and diagnosed 20 years ago,
when the numbers first shot up.
"Twenty years ago we
thought of autism with intellectual disability. We never looked at
children who had normal intelligence" -- doctors never considered that
high-functioning children had autism too, says Goldstein.
Wiznitzer believes
written reports can't definitively determine whether a child has autism.
You need to see the child to complete a diagnosis, which the CDC
experts did not have the opportunity to do.
"This report tells us
that there's a significant number of children in the states where they
were assessed that have social differences and a pattern of behaviors
that can be represented by ASD, but may also be due to other conditions
that superficially can have similar features, such as social anxiety,
ADHD with social immaturity and intelligence problems," he says.
And while the CDC
reports it is still seeing a higher prevalence of autism in white
children relative to African-American and Hispanic children, "there's a
greater percentage of people of color and in females being diagnosed
now," says Scott Badesch, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America. "We're also seeing a great increase of diagnosis above the age of 8 in girls."
The new statistics raise
significant concerns about access to care, because autism is a lifelong
disorder and the need for services only begins at diagnosis, says
Robert Ring, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.
"Behind these numbers
are real people," he says. "Every one of these numbers is a family
that's coming to terms with the implications of the diagnosis for the
lifespan of their loved one."
"We need a plan to
respond to these numbers, a national strategy for autism, and leadership
has to come from Washington," because every congressional district is
affected, says Ring.
There are still
disparities in awareness and access to care among minorities and poorer
families, which can have a direct impact on a child's outcome, he says.
In the end, it's not so
much about the final number. As Goldstein puts it, 1 in 68 or 1 in 70
doesn't really matter. What matters, he says, is that we now know this
is not a rare disorder, and it's important that each individual gets the
help they need to have the best quality of life.
All agree that a
comprehensive national strategy that includes the research community,
policy makers, educators and caregivers is necessary to find solutions
for people who live with autism.
One of the biggest
problems, in Goldstein's eyes: "We don't have enough trained
professionals to do this." He adds, "it's hard to get paid to do this."
In many cases, insurance does not pay, even in states that have passed laws requiring health insurance to cover autism, he says.
When poorer parents are
told their child has autism, Badesch says, they realize that to get
services, they must get on a waiting list or get Medicaid. In many
states, he says, Medicaid doesn't cover autism therapy for young
children during the most critical developmental period, which is
essential to a better outcome.
Autism is definitely a
"have and have-not" disorder, he says, and the new numbers show even
more people will need services that are lacking.
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