It’s one of the most controversial diagnoses of our time, and it’s affecting more children than ever. According to a recent statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis was 1 in 68 in 2012, compared with only 1 in 88 in 2010, a jump of about 30 percent in 2 years.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), ASD is a “range of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotypes patterns of behavior.”
For their research, the CDC analyzed information from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, estimating of prevalence of autism among 8-year old children in 11 different sites.
Their findings reveal that autism is far more common in boys than girls—nearly five times so. One in 42 boys have ASD while for girls the rate is just 1 in 189. It is also more common in white children than in black or Hispanic kids.
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