CNN report -- Autism: Could high U.S. rate be due to over-diagnosis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This? This right here is why 1 in 68 kids have "autism" now in the US. But not in Canada or Germany or any other industrialized wealthy nation.

I could care less if ASD is over diagnosed as long as these kids are getting the help they need.

Totally agree with the "1 out of 68" poster. I even had a psychiatrist recently tell me "too bad he's not autistic, then you could get more services"!!

Had a girlfriend (although a pretty dense one at that) once tell me that when we got to Disneyland to just tell them that DS had autism so we could move to the front of the line for all the rides!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 in 250 according to the Times of India.

Given that many children in India still don't even attend school, I am dubious about estimates of the autism rate there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This? This right here is why 1 in 68 kids have "autism" now in the US. But not in Canada or Germany or any other industrialized wealthy nation.

I could care less if ASD is over diagnosed as long as these kids are getting the help they need.

Totally agree with the "1 out of 68" poster. I even had a psychiatrist recently tell me "too bad he's not autistic, then you could get more services"!!

Had a girlfriend (although a pretty dense one at that) once tell me that when we got to Disneyland to just tell them that DS had autism so we could move to the front of the line for all the rides!

They do not give the passes out to everyone. When I went to get one they insisted on meeting my child. When they asked his name and he couldn't say it, it was a non-issue. I offered documentation but they are not allowed to look at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is to a blog by some mom in New Zealand written in 2011. Not sure how that is relevant to the number of autism diagnosed in the U.S.

It's not. But, someone brought up the point that some parents try to get this diagnosis just for extra services, which may or may not be because of autism. My point was that, much like redshirting, it's the parents with the financial resources that can push for some kind of diagnosis to get extra services.

This is one of the craziest theories I've ever heard. Do you really think a parent would want to give their child the stigma of a diagnosis if they could get out of it and believe the their child would just grow out of whatever is going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people are trying to get kids diagnosed with autism just for the so-called wonderful services, they'd be better off pursuing. Some other strategy! The services for high functioning kids are abysmal and are very hard to get. If you like spending money on advocates and outside evaluators who don't take insurance just to game the system, you are wacked!

Exactly. You can't get much without spending a fortune on advocates and outside evaluators - none of whom takes insurance... and we have a school that has been very accommodating and nice!

Which is why I said it's only those with money that can afford to try to get the diagnosis if it's not apparent just to get additional services. Like the PP said, some school districts limit what types of SN get services, so some parents may try to force the diagnosis to one that the school will provide services for. And as pp noted, private schools aren't known for their great services to SN kids.

I don't understand this logic. The amount of money you'd pay to get a diagnosis and fight the school system to get them to recognize the diagnosis is probably far less than you would pay out of pocket for private services. If you're wealthy it makes more sense just to go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That link is to a blog by some mom in New Zealand written in 2011. Not sure how that is relevant to the number of autism diagnosed in the U.S.

It's not. But, someone brought up the point that some parents try to get this diagnosis just for extra services, which may or may not be because of autism. My point was that, much like redshirting, it's the parents with the financial resources that can push for some kind of diagnosis to get extra services.

This is one of the craziest theories I've ever heard. Do you really think a parent would want to give their child the stigma of a diagnosis if they could get out of it and believe the their child would just grow out of whatever is going on?

Read what some people have posted. Yes, some people want their kids to be diagnosed with this because the kid needs some kind of special services, and this is one diagnosis that gets it. I'm not saying parents of non special needs children are doing this. It's some parents of kids that have some kind of LD but not necessarily autism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people are trying to get kids diagnosed with autism just for the so-called wonderful services, they'd be better off pursuing. Some other strategy! The services for high functioning kids are abysmal and are very hard to get. If you like spending money on advocates and outside evaluators who don't take insurance just to game the system, you are wacked!

Exactly. You can't get much without spending a fortune on advocates and outside evaluators - none of whom takes insurance... and we have a school that has been very accommodating and nice!

Which is why I said it's only those with money that can afford to try to get the diagnosis if it's not apparent just to get additional services. Like the PP said, some school districts limit what types of SN get services, so some parents may try to force the diagnosis to one that the school will provide services for. And as pp noted, private schools aren't known for their great services to SN kids.

I don't understand this logic. The amount of money you'd pay to get a diagnosis and fight the school system to get them to recognize the diagnosis is probably far less than you would pay out of pocket for private services. If you're wealthy it makes more sense just to go private.

No not necessarily. My DS with ASD/ADHD attends an immersion language school. We like the curriculum and DS does well academically with IEP for social communication supports/services. He does not have issues issues with academics. We've visited SN schools for kids with Asperger's and none of them offer the same type of education.

Also, our public charter is the one who told us to get our child evaluated. We never sought a diagnosis. Can't imagine a parent wanting their child to have autism. No fight at all to get an IEP but we spend a lot of money to make sure that his supports and services are what he needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This? This right here is why 1 in 68 kids have "autism" now in the US. But not in Canada or Germany or any other industrialized wealthy nation.

I could care less if ASD is over diagnosed as long as these kids are getting the help they need.

Totally agree with the "1 out of 68" poster. I even had a psychiatrist recently tell me "too bad he's not autistic, then you could get more services"!!

Had a girlfriend (although a pretty dense one at that) once tell me that when we got to Disneyland to just tell them that DS had autism so we could move to the front of the line for all the rides!

Like what "more services" can you get with an autism label vs other labels?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This? This right here is why 1 in 68 kids have "autism" now in the US. But not in Canada or Germany or any other industrialized wealthy nation.

I could care less if ASD is over diagnosed as long as these kids are getting the help they need.

Totally agree with the "1 out of 68" poster. I even had a psychiatrist recently tell me "too bad he's not autistic, then you could get more services"!!

Had a girlfriend (although a pretty dense one at that) once tell me that when we got to Disneyland to just tell them that DS had autism so we could move to the front of the line for all the rides!

Like what "more services" can you get with an autism label vs other labels?

Most health insurances will pay for ABA, speech, OT and PT with an autism diagnosis. Without it, its either very limited services or none and families have to pay. Paying means $150 an hour or more several times a week. Even a comfortable family (i.e. $180,000+) will struggle with that. Our insurance would not pay until we got the autism diagnosis and then we were offered more therapy than we could ever even use.

[Anonymous]

If you are talking about kids with Asperger's - kids at the higher end of the spectrum without language delays who are the ones pushing up the autism diagnosis numbers and are usually diagnosed once they enter school, we were never offered ABA nor was it ever recommended by our developmental pediatrician.

We got free school based OT, PT, speech (pragmatics), and social skills group via the IEP; all recommended by our developmental pediatrician, educational consultant and/or neuropsych who we paid to attend and advocate for us at IEP meetings.

Not sure what you mean by all these "extra services" that you get from an autism diagnosis at least for school aged kids without language delays other than pragmatics.

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand how all these people think an autism diagnosis will get them good services. We get shit services and I have a child with behavioral, attention, social and communication issues and an autism diagnosis. And the diagnosis is totally legit... There are three people in my family with that diagnosis and it's legit.

We also had to fight the school system to accept our diagnosis from Kennedy Krieger... Not some fly by night pill pusher.

And as for insurance, we pay so much out of pocket. I dare anyone to get all their services for their child from in-network providers! It's just not possible!

An autism diagnosis didn't open this miracle door to free or low cost services at all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand how all these people think an autism diagnosis will get them good services. We get shit services and I have a child with behavioral, attention, social and communication issues and an autism diagnosis. And the diagnosis is totally legit... There are three people in my family with that diagnosis and it's legit.

We also had to fight the school system to accept our diagnosis from Kennedy Krieger... Not some fly by night pill pusher.

And as for insurance, we pay so much out of pocket. I dare anyone to get all their services for their child from in-network providers! It's just not possible!

An autism diagnosis didn't open this miracle door to free or low cost services at all!

Because not all states or school districts or even insurance companies have the exact same services or criteria for services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand how all these people think an autism diagnosis will get them good services. We get shit services and I have a child with behavioral, attention, social and communication issues and an autism diagnosis. And the diagnosis is totally legit... There are three people in my family with that diagnosis and it's legit.

We also had to fight the school system to accept our diagnosis from Kennedy Krieger... Not some fly by night pill pusher.

And as for insurance, we pay so much out of pocket. I dare anyone to get all their services for their child from in-network providers! It's just not possible!

An autism diagnosis didn't open this miracle door to free or low cost services at all!

We private paid for about a year at a huge cost. When we got the autism diagnosis, we did get everything covered, including speech which we private paid. The doctor supported us staying with our current therapist and they had a partial, not full in-network relationship. He somehow got it approved. He also got OT and ABA for us, all in-network. Our co-pays were minimal (compared to private pay). For some, it does open a miracle door. Without the autism diagnosis the pediatrician (not the one who diagnosed it) could not get us speech therapy no matter how hard she tried. She still couldn't get it and we had to go through the developmental ped. For some, its true. We have gone private for school so I cannot speak to an IEP till we transfer to public. I am hoping my child will not need services when we do that. The schools provide very little in terms of services. For us it was a waste of time as it was so minimal.

[Anonymous]

As some orhers have said, the autism diagnosis hasn't done much to help us. We pay out of pocket for services and the county services are just okay... I pray every night that we will wake up and one day it will all be better....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand how all these people think an autism diagnosis will get them good services. We get shit services and I have a child with behavioral, attention, social and communication issues and an autism diagnosis. And the diagnosis is totally legit... There are three people in my family with that diagnosis and it's legit.

We also had to fight the school system to accept our diagnosis from Kennedy Krieger... Not some fly by night pill pusher.

And as for insurance, we pay so much out of pocket. I dare anyone to get all their services for their child from in-network providers! It's just not possible!

An autism diagnosis didn't open this miracle door to free or low cost services at all!

Because not all states or school districts or even insurance companies have the exact same services or criteria for services.

Exactly. Our insurance wouldn't pay for speech therapy for a language delay, but would pay for speech with an autism diagnosis, as well as OT and behavioral therapy.

Our school principal told us (wrongly) that if we kept a language impairment label instead of caving for the autism label, they would only give us speech therapy, no other accommodations.

States that mandate insurance coverage for autism offer a lot of extras for the autism diagnosis.