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

Before, the weird kid was just “the weird kid.” Now we have a better understanding as to why, and it’s a lot of different stuff rather than just “weird,” so we can treat/accommodate/be more kind.