Reply to Study: Genetics explain most cases of autism

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How much of the increased numbers are related to increase awareness and better diagnosis?

For example, my now young adult nephew has aspergers. He is moderately functional in a failure to launch kind of way.

My dad (in his early 70s) is exactly like my nephew. Clearly, my dad has aspergers too. However, he does not have an aspergers diagnosis and does not consider himself to be on the spectrum or anything but himself. When he was growing up, he was known as "different" or "difficult" or a "do nothing" kid.  It was "Billy kind of does his own thing" not "Billy needs a diagnosis so he can get services."  Had he grown up in the past 15-20 years, my dad would have clearly had a diagnosis on the spectrum.

The same with learning abilities. My brother (almost 50) had some kind of learning disability growing up. Yet no one thought to make accoodations or seek out a diagnosis. It was always "Bobby is a little slow/stupid/not working to potential."

I think our awareness and the availability of services has greatly inflated the numbers of kids considered on the spectrum from one-two generations ago.[/quote]

Completely agree. My mother was just rigid and difficult and precocious as a child. She was a neat-nick who kept all her dolls and clothing in bags and reorganized them when she played. This was seen as odd but not something requiring a diagnosis. As I was growing up, I constantly had to explain jokes to her because she was so literal. There are a ton of these stories I could tell you that all point to a modern day diagnosis.[/quote]

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