A new study suggests that the increase in the number of children being diagnosed with autism is due, in least in part, to the way that diagnosis is defined.
The number of U.S. children enrolled in special education programs due to an autism diagnosis more than tripled between 2000 and 2010.
A new study from Penn State University says that may be because educators traded one diagnosis for another.
Dr. Susan Hyman, an autism expert at UR Medicine, says this is not a matter of semantics. The right diagnosis means a child will get the best treatment and services.
"A child may have more than one diagnosis, but the school team with the family picks the educational handicap that they are serving the child under,” Hyman said. “So, many of these children, if you went to their medical records, would have been identified as having autism and intellectual disability, or autism and a genetic disorder."
From 1994 to 2013, the medical diagnosis for autism expanded to include children, teens, and adults with Asperger's Syndrome, typical intelligence, and intellectual disabilities.
Hyman believes there are other possible explanations for a surge in the number of school-aged children receiving an autism diagnosis; including better screening at pediatric practices, and more awareness on the part of teachers and parents.
"Parents are correctly identifying that their child who isn't engaging in pretend play as a preschooler, who isn't pointing and engaging in social gesture at 18 months of age, who has repetitive interest as a preschooler; parents are identifying that those children need further assessment.”
Hyman said the study does not account for the possibility that there has also been an actual increase in autism cases.
