One in Thirty Eight

Anyone catch the article in Newsday today, “Study in South Korea finds higher rate of autism,” by The Associated Press Carla K. Johnson (AP Medical Writer) (http://www.newsday.com/news/health/study-in-south-korea-finds-higher-rate-of-autism-1.2864765)?  Seems that South Korea puts the autism rate at one (1) in thirty eight (38)!  Is autism truly that prevalent?  It seems like it sometimes . . .

Personally, I don’t know what to say about the study.  It was based on an extremely large survey (55,000 students), follow up and some testing, although there is speculation that the population that responded to the survey may have been disproportionately made up of parents with children with issues, and it was indicated that very few of the children actually went through an entire diagnostic procedure.  How accurate was the survey?  And, how can it be so very different from our own CDC’s estimate of one (1) in one hundred (100) (although, I have mentioned it before, that estimate is probably low).

But it makes you think.  How do we define “autism”?  How do we diagnose it?  How accurate can we possibly be when it comes to disorders that are so subjective in nature?

What’s really at issue, though, is once it is diagnosed, what do we do about it?

And, again, sorry to anyone following this blog.  I am still working on my book about my son, and how we helped him “recover” from ADHD, ODD, and PDD.  The first half is done – the part about our story (from a father’s perspective).  The second half, the one with all the relevant research about the methods we used, is taking a while.  Seems there’s a whole lot of stuff that supports what we did.  I’m still trying to glean through the best of it.