Re: JAWAHAR: AUTISM EPIDEMIC

[Guest guest]

Jawahar:

I am the RI Rep. for UNLOCKING AUTISM. As such, I am completely on top of the Hard facts and statistics on the epidemic. Just to throw some information your way...here are some real and proven FACTS about it that you should know about....

1) Only 10 years ago autism affected one in 10,000 Children (as a matter of fact, this is the figure they threw at me only 5 years ago when my son was diagnosed)

2) Statistics for 1998 showed that autism affects one in 500 children.

3) Statistics for 2000 showed it affects one in 250 children.

4) California's latest statistics shows that one child is diagnosed with autism every four hours, every twenty-four hours, seven days a week. That's six children every day in one state. 42 children per week. 2184 children per year!

5) Florida showed a 571% increase in autism over a 5 year period.

6) land reported a 513% increase during the same time frame.

7) Indiana had a rate of 1 in 100 children in 1997, in the public school system, according to US Department of Education statistics as reported to the Congressional Committee on Government Reform.

8) Louisiana reported a rate of 1 in 147 children in the public school system with autism in 1997.

(MY NOTE - The basic argument has become that "there are better diagnostic criteria or that criteria has become broader". BUT, how can that even become an argument? Think about it...if these kids always existed, there should be teens and adults with autism packing group homes and institutions. Look for yourself...you won't find them...they don't exist! Or ask Bernie Rimland how many kids existed when his son was diagnosed many years ago - Mark is now in his mid-thirties. He even told us that when he attended college for psychology before his son was born, autism wasn't even taught at all. The first time he'd ever heard the word was when his own son was diagnosed with it. You never heard of it. Now, no matter where I go ...people tell me they have some relative or friend with a child with autism! AND these statistics are only those for children between the ages of 3 and 18...in the public schools...who have a diagnosis of FULL-BLOWN AUTISM...it does NOT include those diagnosed with PDD, Asperger's, Rett's Syndrome, etc)

9) The number of individuals with autism is greater than the number of individuals with Down Syndrome, childhood cancer and childhood diabetes COMBINED.

10) California's Department of Developmental Services estimates it costs tax payers over $2 million for every child with autism until the age of 21. This does not include the burden on taxpayers from age 21 through the rest of their life.

If one in one-hundred children had MEASLES, it would be considered a catastrophic epidemic! BUT THEY DON'T...THEY HAVE AUTISM. The burden on the families is so great, you never hear about these kids. Families are too busy trying to deal with a massive crisis to make these facts known...buried under the burden of ABA therapists and costs, fighting with overburdened school departments for services for their kids, etc. It is perhaps the greatest tradgedy that it is such a silent epidemic. But there are those of us who won't let it be silent anymore!

My son's elementary school ALONE - just ONE school - has 12 autistic children in it. There are 4 other elementary schools just in our tiny little town in RI!!!!!! But even more striking is how few kids you will find in the high schools and beyond with this diagnoses!

Do I doubt these kids are autistic? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Would you like to come and visit and tell us we are wrong????

Sorry...but you hit a tender spot for me!!!! I hope this ends your uneducated attack on our nightmare!

All My Best,

[Guest guest]

> Jawahar:

> I am the RI Rep. for UNLOCKING AUTISM. As such, I am completely on

top of

> the Hard facts and statistics on the epidemic. Just to throw some

> information your way...here are some real and proven FACTS about it

that you

> should know about....

>

's figures are accurate....thanks for sharing them with

everyone . (I am a LA UA rep by the way :-) ). On a personal

note when I taught school in the early 80's there were no children

with autism in any of the schools I taught in! By the mid - late 90's

when I had children in school there were usually at least 5 in every

school they attended. In fact, the last school they attended (I

homeschool my AS son and my Dyslexic son goes to private school for

children with Dyslexia) the rate of autism was 1:100! I too do not

buy the better diagnosis arguement and many school nurses went to

capitol hill in 2000 during Rep. Dan Burton's hearings to say the same

thing....especially those that have been school nurses for 20 years or

better!

Sharon Howell

Baton Rouge, LA

showe