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Essay On Autism Epidemic

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Autism Epidemic

The majority of people in America are affected by autism in some way. A study done by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock in 2008 says, “In the early 1980s, the incidence of children diagnosed with an ASD was about 1 in 10,000 children. By 2005, the incidence had leaped to about 1 in 250 and today it is more than 1 in 150 and appears to be still climbing…” even in the past ten years, the number of autistic children has grown. There is no ignoring this fact. This significant rise in autism can be attributed to an increase in vaccinations, diagnostic substitution, and wireless phones.
Looking back to the time that our grandparents were children, there were little to no ‘mandatory’ vaccinations. The image to the right shows the increase in vaccinations and the number of people diagnosed with autism …show more content…

In the previous decade, there could have been plenty of autistic children that weren’t labeled as such. The opposite is also true. Many children who have a learning disorder may have been seen as autistic. Dr. Paul Shattuck says, “A kid labeled autistic today could have been labeled mentally retarded 10 years ago in the same school system.” Shattuck believes that children are simply just being reclassified in an attempt to manipulate the facts. The definition of autism is constantly being broadened, and as a result, the number of children that fall into the category of ‘autistic’ is increased. “In the 1990’s the diagnosis of autism was changed to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - the new name reflecting the changing concept of autism to include a broader spectrum of symptoms...” Professor Dorothy Bishop studied adults who were diagnosed with a language disorder. She then compared their symptoms to our new criteria and found that 25% of them would be considered autistic by today’s standards. With a more generic definition of this disorder comes more children diagnosed with

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