How rare was autism back in the 90s?

Question

I would like to know. From elementary school to middle school, it seemed I was only an autistic child in a normal school.

Answer 1

I think its always been there, we just know more about it now. So its out in the open so to speak.

Answer 2

I honestly believe that Autism is on the rise, my son was certainly NOT diagnosed as being Autistic just so the school system could get more funding. He is almost 5 years old and he can hardly ever contribute anything to a conversation that makes any sense to anyone (other than himself). He walks around repeating the same few words over & over & over for hours on end. He hits himself on the head & screams like crazy. No, he isn't mentally retarded. He can actually read written words and has been able to for 2 years (at least). If I have a problem with my computer, he can fix it. He is very intelligent. Yet, he cannot speak to me to tell me how his day was or what he wants to eat. This alone is heartbreaking. I feel so badly for not being able to know his needs or wants. As a mother, that is all you ever really want, ya know?

To answer the initial question- yes, autism does seem to be on the rise, do you remember seeing children like my son when you were in school? I always say we would have noticed them, wouldn't we? I think maybe Aspergers could go unnoticed, but autism? Depending how severe I guess.

Sorry for rambling, it is a big part of my daily life and to have people say uneducated things like people are being diagnosed so schools can get more money infuriates me.

Answer 3

It s a combination of factors:

1. The definition of autism has changed - so there are more people with the diagnosis. There are other labels some people with autism used to get that no longer exist. Some people with mild autism or specific types of autism never received a disability label.

2. Education services for children has changed. Some children with autism were considered uneducable and were not in school long ago. Other children with autism were not offered inclusive education when they would be now.

3. There is definitely an increase in the number of people with autism. Autism was once almost exclusively a male disability - now many more girls have it.

4. There are financial benefits to autism in some states so some people who would have previously done everything possible to hide their children's autistic qualities - now don't.

Answer 4

Autism has been around since the early 1940s, but generally at the time was thought to occur due to a cold non nurturing parent, usually the mum.

I think we're seeing more of it now because there has been more research in autism in the last 35-40 years and it's become easier to diagnose. And from research we realize that there are different kinds of autism.

Also as more prominent parents in news, the entertainment business, medicine etc have had children with autism there's less stigma attached to it.

Answer 5

The same thing happened to me. Autism has basically been ignored until recently, so people with higher functioning Autism had a REALLY tough time getting diagnosed, and the only reason people with severe Autism got diagnosed was the odd behaviour, not because people know it was Autism. Even doctors didn't really know much about Autism, so there were incorrect diagnosises such as deafness instead of Autism

Answer 6

If you were to go back to 1980 in the United States, not 1990, it seemed that:

a) Epilepsy was the number 1 concern estimated to affect 2% of the population

b) ADHD (then known as Hyperactivity/Hyperkinesis transitioning to ADD) was estimated to affect 2% or less of the population, and

c) Autism was estimated to affect about 1 in 10,000 persons (so way less than 1%).

That's my recollection.

Since this, the numbers have changed a lot.

There is a large question as to why the numbers have changed a lot.

The idea of learning difficulties/learning disabilities is a fairly new idea (think perhaps the late 1960s) as I recall.

Answer 7

It wasn't rare, it's just that Austism was seen as a very severe form of mental retardation because many of them couldn't talk, or function in any other way. We still have the more severe, stereotypical types, but we also realized that not all austic people are the same. There's a whole spectrum.

On that note, I question the validity of saying Aspberger's is austism. To me, it just looks like a very shy, introverted person.

Answer 8

That is a hard question to answer.
Is there more Autistic children today than yesterday?
Is the increase in autistic children we are seeing because of
1. More children with autism are being diagnosed because the medical community is more aware of the syndrome?
OR
2. Is the syndrome on the rise?
I don't know.

Answer 9

Most recent reviews estimate a prevalence of one to two cases per 1,000 people for autism, and about six per 1,000 for ASD, with ASD averaging a 4.3:1 male-to-female ratio. The number of people known to have autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, at least partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved.

Answer 10

It's really hard to say.
In the early 90s, most people didn't know what autism was, and it was rarely screened for.

It's likely that there were a large number of people with mild cases of autism who had no idea that they even had it.

Answer 11

It was just not as known about, people still had it, most would have been in a special school.

My disability dyspraixia was unknown about in the 70 until about 90s I think.