The apparent rise in autistic people in the last 40 years

Question

I’m curious as to the seeming rise of autistic humans in the last decades.

Is it that it was just not understood and therefore not diagnosed/reported?

Are there environmental or even societal factors that have corresponded to this increase in cases?

In: Biology

Answer 1

3 things, primarily:

1 – They expanded the diagnostic criteria. You used to need to be *very* heavily impacted by autism in order to be diagnosed. Like, basically non-verbal and never going to live independently. Now you can be much less impacted and still qualify.

2 – There’s much more awareness, so a much higher percentage of those impacted are being diagnosed.

3 – There’s talk of “tech-induced autism” in education and psychiatry, where kids are lacking social skills because screen time is replacing socialization.