This article reviews the CDC study that found 1 in 6 US children (ages 3-17) have a developmental disability. I haven't read the actual study so I will be brief about this.
Background
There have been several studies showing that autism, adhd, and other diagnoses are more prevalent now than ever. The common man criticizes those findings saying, "they are finding what they want to find" or "autism is not more prevalent, but now that we know more about it, we can better find it."
Issue
True or not true: autism, adhd, and/or developmental disabilities are more common now than 10 or 20 years ago?
What I think
No. The article mentions causes behind the rise in diagnoses: "Researchers said the increase may be due in part to more preterm births and parents having children at older ages. They also said that improvements in screenings, diagnosis and awareness have pushed the numbers higher." If anything, I think it's the latter. I find it hard to believe that cases of these disabilities are rising by 30+% per year! At this rate, in a few years, all of our children will have some diagnosis.
What struck me was how the data was collected: "The surveys are representative samples of U.S. households and asked PARENTS to report diagnoses of ADHD, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, seizures, stuttering or stammering, moderate to profound hearing loss, blindness, learning disorders and other developmental delays." PARENTS. Did you catch that? Do you see anything wrong with that? I do. Parents are not doctors and (no offense please) without the training and experience, can we trust their diagnosis of their own children? Yes, they know their child better than anyone. Yes they can research up on adhd (click here to learn what the symptoms are and you'll find that all children show some or most of them at one point in their lives). But I can't trust these surveys to accurately represent the disabilities that these children have.
Note: I am not discounting the reality of these disabilities, this is why I went into Special education after all...just the sudden and extreme rise in numbers.
Am I being unreasonable? What do you think: is the rise in cases of autism, adhd, and developmental disabilities legitimate?
4 comments:
It asked parents to report whether or not their children had already been diagnosed, not TO diagnose their children, right? I think that's legitimate.
There could be other reasons, too, for the increase in mental disabilities. First of all, as medicine advances and we find the reasonings behind the diseases we are able to medicate them and patients are able to live totally normal lives. This means having a family and passing on possible genetic traits, whereas in the past they might not have had that opportunity.
Also, a few decades ago the national government got rid of all the state mental health hospitals. It used to be that when someone had a mental disability they went to a mental health hospital, and were kind of hidden away. The goal of getting rid of the state hospitals was to have communities care for the patients - which would explain why all of a sudden there seem to be quite a few more people around with these disabilities.
Just some thoughts.
The CDC did just put out that article on how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, so we can't be too sure about any of their research anymore...it's good to question their findings!
Cami, you're right. The CDC did not ask parents to diagnose their children. My fear is that some did anyway. This might have happened: the parents have some understanding of adhd from what they read about and see on the news (because it's everywhere these days) and say, "oh, that sounds like my child." So when they get the survey, they think, "yeah, my child might have adhd. And you know what? They're not getting services! I should get services!" I think this may be a big portion of the discrepancy.
Your other two points are good ones and make a lot of sense. I just don't think they could account for such a dramatic increase. But I guess lots of little explanations, and little changes all put together could make a big difference.
Did they say they'd get services if they marked yes? I definitely think it's a combo of parents have children later in life and we can diagnose it better. I think the rise is legitimate, but the real question is, now what?
I agree with you Charisse, that the diagnoses for these disabilities is improving so it seems like they are more prevalent, but we just recognize them more now. Also, I have to tell you--I have an interview on Monday for the Center for Disabilities Research for an assistantship for the fall! I might be calling you and chatting about what you have learned, if it goes well!
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