Extra extra, read all about it; CDC says Autism numbers are on the rise & kids in the US are at a 1 in 88 child chance of being diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder! At first I thought to myself:

• Autism must be the new IT thing! Ha! My kid was autistic before it was trendy…wait…that’s not right.
• Maybe like an infomercial: Kids In The USA, Now with 23% More Autism!…wait…that’s not right.
• 1 in 88 Kids in 2012; It’s Not Your Grandpa’s Autism!…still not right…oh well.

A while back everyone was talking about this great idea that they are working on with the new DSM that will make our Asperger’s & a lot of kids who are high functioning no longer fit the “New” DSMs guide lines for being “Autistic”. Not only does this smack kids & parents right in the kisser as far as getting services, what little funding is out there, IEPs for school, & other stuff like that but it seems like it will also “help” in lowering the number of kids out there considered autistic. Driving down the numbers that we are talking about today. Or at least that’s how it seems to me anyway!

It’s times like these you wish there was just one guy, one guy in an office in Washington or your State Capital that was just bein’ difficult & screwing these kids out of the services & help they need. Just one guy that you could find out about &, in some peoples case, write a strongly worded letter to him. In other people’s case, maybe wait ’till he is headed out to lunch & shove him in the trunk of his own car & call it a “therapy compartment”! Unfortunately there isn’t just one guy being difficult, there are a bunch of them! Unfortunately there are more difficult people than there are trunks “therapy compartments”.

So as I finished reading the news about the new CDC numbers and how it’s changing everything or how we “have to find out the root of autism” I think, how does all this effect me & my kids today…. It doesn’t.  I read these articles or little news blips, especially this time of year coming up on April, about Autism as a diagnosis or Autism as a Disorder or even much to my dismay Autism as an “epidemic” and all of this boils down to when we get up in the morning my son is still going to get up & put his pants on…backwards but that’s another story.

We are still going to do the same as we always have for him. It’s easy for me to get hung up on the news stories & mad about changes but I’m really starting to try to just go with the flow. That being said if they do change the DSM, while I don’t think my son will be effected, I would be willing to rent a bus & drive us all around to each on of the doctors who signed off on it to introduce them to the “Therapy Compartment”.

Be Sociable, Share!

•