The organization provides a number of services to the handicapped in the state. It took 25 years (1970-1995) for them to add 6,527 cases of people with autism into their system. It took only 3 years to add virtually the same number of cases — 6,596 new cases were added from 1999 to 2001. From 1987-1998, cases grew over 200%. Such figures do not include related autism-like disorders, such as Asperger's Disorder and Rett's Syndrome. Autism is now the top disability entering California's developmental system, surpassing mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy.
The increase in autism is not just limited to California. States such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Missouri have seen striking increases in autistic students. Indeed, the number of autistic students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) increased 320% nationwide from the 1992-1993 fiscal year to 1999-2000. The growth in the under 18 population in the United States, meanwhile, increased about 10% over the same period.
The obvious question here: is autism on the rise, or are we just more aware of the disorder? Researchers seem to think both factors play a part. "We're in the middle of an autism epidemic," said Dr. Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research Institute in 1999 to the Los Angeles Times. But a doctor at UC Irvine made this remark the same year: "I heard the 'A word" twice in seven years of postgraduate education, and never in medical school."
Autism is a disorder that typically appears in the first three years of life. The disease was first described by child psychologist Leo Kanner in 1943 at Johns Hopkins University. He who used the word autism — from the Greek word self, autos — to describe a group of his patients who were deeply withdrawn and exhibited some highly idiosyncratic behavior. Children with autism exhibit difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication. Other symptoms include repeated body movements (hand flapping, rocking), short attention spans, being preoccupied with routines, no spontaneous playing, no eye contact, and social isolation. Boys are four times as affected as girls. The exact cause is not known, although mercury poisoning, pollution, and vaccinations have all been blamed. The latest research links it to biological and neurological disturbances in the brain. The most recent clinical study's outcome (October 2002) might be characterized as a wringing of hands and a shake of heads. Experts have no clue.
Autism has traditionally been thought to appear in every 4 to 5 out of 10,000 births, but recent studies suggest that as many as 1 in 150 kids age 10 and younger may suffer from autism or related disorders — a total of about 300,000. If these new numbers are accurate, the disorder is five times as common as Down's Syndrome and juvenile diabetes.
Wired magazine offered up an intriguing analysis of the rise in autism and related disorders in California, particularly in the Silicon Valley area. They theorized that those with autism and Asperger's Disorder are well suited to the rigid life of a computer programmer (those with Asperger's Disorder are as withdrawn as autistic people, but they also tend to be obsessed with literal thinking about complex subjects such as weather, music, astronomy, history, etc.). They are adept at working with the logical commands of computer codes. They work in walled-off cubicles, limiting their contact with people. E-mail replaces the potentially tricky process of face to face communication. Then, some researchers suspect, something known as assortive mating takes place. Basically, smart men tend to meet and marry smart women; or, more crudely stated, "geeks of a feather flock together." This mating then leads to an overload of genes that predispose their children to autism and related disorders (and potentially unrelated ones, such as dyslexia).
Researchers continue to try to unravel they mystery of autism. One question scientists have yet to solve: why do roughly 25% of autistic children respond strongly to intensive speech and social communication therapy, when the rest do not?
Source: California Health and Human Services Agency, Department of Developmental Services: Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California's Developmental Services System, March 1, 1999; Nash, J. Madeleine. "The Secrets of Autism." Time, May 6, 2002, p. 46; Steve Silberman. "The Geek Syndrome. " Wired, December 2001, p. 1; "What is Autism?" Retrieved July 31, 2002 from http://www.autism-society.org; "Schools Contend with Increase of Autistic Children." Retrieved August 13, 2002 from http://www.nsba.org; Thomas H. Maugh II, "State Study Finds Sharp Rise in Autism Rate." Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1999, p. 1; "Autism Epidemic Continues to Expand in California." Retrieved from http://www.mercola.com.
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