World Autism Awareness Day

It is April 2nd, which means that it is World Autism Awareness Day. Here at eLuma, we are deeply committed to supporting and helping those affected by autism. So today, we want to invite everyone to take action, no matter if it’s great or small, because we believe that it all matters and that everyone can make a difference.

In connection with creating more autism awareness, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently released an updated report on autism in the US. Here are some of the key findings:

Prevalence

• About 1 in 59 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. [Read article]
• ASD is reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. [Read summary] [Read article]
• ASD is about 4 times more common among boys than among girls. [Read article]
• Studies in Asia, Europe, and North America have identified individuals with ASD with an average prevalence of between 1% and 2%. [Data table Cdc-pdf[PDF – 232 KB]]
• About 1 in 6 children in the United States had a developmental disability in 2006-2008, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism. [Read summary]

Diagnosis

• Research has shown that a diagnosis of autism at age 2 can be reliable, valid, and stable. [Read summary] [Read summary]
• Even though ASD can be diagnosed as early as age 2 years, most children are not diagnosed with ASD until after age 4 years. The median age of first diagnosis by subtype is as follows. [Read article]
  • Autistic disorder: 3 years, 10 months
  • ASD/pervasive developmental disorder (PDD): 4 years, 8 months
  • Asperger disorder: 5 years, 7 months
• Studies have shown that parents of children with ASD notice a developmental problem before their child’s first birthday. Concerns about vision and hearing were more often reported in the first year, and differences in social, communication, and fine motor skills were evident from 6 months of age.[Read summary] [Read summary]

Risk Factors & Characteristics

• Studies have shown that among identical twins, if one child has ASD, then the other will be affected about 36-95% of the time. In non-identical twins, if one child has ASD, then the other is affected about 0-31% of the time. ^[1-4]
• Parents who have a child with ASD have a 2%–18% chance of having a second child who is also affected.^[5,6]
• ASD tends to occur more often in people who have certain genetic or chromosomal conditions. About 10% of children with autism are also identified as having Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, or other genetic and chromosomal disorders.^[7-10]
• Almost half (44%) of children identified with ASD has average to above average intellectual ability. [Read article]
• Children born to older parents are at a higher risk for having ASD. [Read summary]
• A small percentage of children who are born prematurely or with low birth weight are at greater risk for having ASD. [Read summary]
• ASD commonly co-occurs with other developmental, psychiatric, neurologic, chromosomal, and genetic diagnoses. The co-occurrence of one or more non-ASD developmental diagnoses is 83%. The co-occurrence of one or more psychiatric diagnoses is 10%. [Read summary]

Diagnosis

• Research has shown that a diagnosis of autism at age 2 can be reliable, valid, and stable. [Read summary] [Read summary]
• Even though ASD can be diagnosed as early as age 2 years, most children are not diagnosed with ASD until after age 4 years. The median age of first diagnosis by subtype is as follows. [Read article]
  • Autistic disorder: 3 years, 10 months
  • ASD/pervasive developmental disorder (PDD): 4 years, 8 months
  • Asperger disorder: 5 years, 7 months
• Studies have shown that parents of children with ASD notice a developmental problem before their child’s first birthday. Concerns about vision and hearing were more often reported in the first year, and differences in social, communication, and fine motor skills were evident from 6 months of age.[Read summary] [Read summary]

Economic Costs

• The total costs per year for children with ASD in the United States were estimated to be between $11.5 billion – $60.9 billion (2011 US dollars). This significant economic burden represents a variety of direct and in-direct costs, from medical care to special education to lost parental productivity. [Read article] [Read article]
• Children and adolescents with ASD had average medical expenditures that exceeded those without ASD by $4,110–$6,200 per year. On average, medical expenditures for children and adolescents with ASD were 4.1–6.2 times greater than for those without ASD. Differences in median expenditures ranged from $2,240 to $3,360 per year with median expenditures 8.4–9.5 times greater. [Read article]
• In 2005, the average annual medical costs for Medicaid-enrolled children with ASD were $10,709 per child, which was about six times higher than costs for children without ASD ($1,812). [Read summary]
• In addition to medical costs, intensive behavioral interventions for children with ASD cost $40,000 to $60,000 per child per year.^[11]

eLuma Invites You to Make a Difference

With all of these things considered, it’s not hard to see that help is needed and we need to create more autism awareness and go beyond. While autism is not a curse, the people affected by it need more support. We hope you can join us at eLuma and take a few minutes to:

• learn more and expand your autism awareness,
• share this message,
•  donate (this month The Henry A. Quinn Charitable Foundation will match your gift today dollar-for-dollar),
• and get involved.