One thing to consider about autism rates is... were they diagnosing kids with autism in 1930? 1940? 1950? Historical data is lacking, so while we get better at picking up on autistic cues in children, and subsequently diagnosing them with the disorder (which actually falls on a spectrum), it may seem as though the incidence of autism is going up, when in fact, the proportion of children with autism has remained relatively stable in modern periods.

Now I don't doubt that the incidence rate can go up, there are many things that come with a society such as ours. As a simple example, greater longevity means we deal more with cancer today than we did 100+ years ago when the age expectancy was dramatically lower.

 

Its all good. Ize was jes messin' wichu.

..evolution not being real yeah, that's it, the whole concept is a story made up by those liberal subversives.

 

Its all good. Ize was jes messin' wichu.

..evolution not being real yeah, that's it, the whole concept is a story made up by those liberal subversives.
[/quote]


Seriously, even the theory of gravity was being attacked.

Anytime I post science stuff there, it's crickets. If it isn't a my top was slashed, what to eat, or a meet thread it gets no traffic.

 

Seriously, even the theory of gravity was being attacked.
[/quote]

Location: Southern California - OC

See problem?

 

Seriously, even the theory of gravity was being attacked.
[/quote]

Location: Southern California - OC

See problem?
[/quote]



California is supposed to be a blue state too, but that is off topic.

 

I'll try posting this topic there and see what happens.

 

Quebec separatists at their finest

 

There's nothing to argue about regarding GRAVITY!

Here, lemme' splain it to you.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Yaai_Cps[/media]

 

Well yes, this certainly is a major and legitimate case to point out. My only contest to that, is quite simply; even functionally autistics are pretty easy to pinpoint from 'normal' kids. Special ed classes weren't booming, afaik in the past (no less to the ever-increasing rate of now). I think if this phenomena was as common as it is today, we wouldn't be so far in the dark about wtf is going on, because it would have been the priority that it is today. That said, I think autism is one of those things that's either being hyper-diagnosed; or there's something else going on. I know we've had our discussions about my belief that evolution, or perhaps more accurately adaptation, is a much more involved and interactive process within humans than we ever believed due to our free-conscious.

Consider for a moment that the last 100 years has been a progressive movement of us as people isolating ourselves and removing ourselves from our communities, becoming more focus fired and more educated in a single subject. Often times following that specific education into 40 years of that line of work. Yes I know, we're speaking in sociological generalities.

Then consider that the two main obvious pinpointers of functional and highly functional autism seems to be social withdrawal and/or 'odd' social behaviors, and extreme intelligence in one or few areas, while seemingly lacking in the rest. This diagnosed tendency seems to directly reflect the society in which we've built, both internally and externally. Just my .02.

 

Right but TODAY you might be able to look at a rowdy kid in a kindergarten class and say "Yep that kid has ADHD" or whatever; but 40 years ago that kid was just smacked and told to sit down, he wasn't investigated by a doctor and psychiatrist to see where in the DSM-IV he belongs...

Today we know what to look for when we want to diagnose bipolarism, major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder, Aspergers, autism, etc.

30 or 40 years ago, most families were either unaware or negligent or plain ignorant (and rightfully so as information was not widespread and available like it is today) so the kid wasn't treated and recorded as having this or that, he was just a rowdy kid that needed a spanking or a hobby.

Records are key here, because you are bringing up statistics to claim autism incidence is up. But if records have only been kept for 30-40 years, you have less data to normalize against and so your graph may have a dramatic spike even though reality may not show such a significant trend over longer stretches of time. Proportion is very important when assessing these issues and frankly we don't have as much data as we might like.

But that's why we are trying to compile data in public health records, something we discussed in the Politics thread.

And the period of "individualism" I believe does not stretch back 100 years, maybe 50 or so years at best. The 1950's, and before, was the prototypical "Pleasantville" where the milk man stopped by every other day and you knew all the kids in school because there weren't 4,000 of them in one district, and you knew all your neighbors and so on... Particularly around the time of WWI to WWII I think Americans had a greater sense of camaraderie (hehe) then today.