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January 4th, 2010
08:00 AM ET
Study finds autism 'clusters' in affluent areas
New research suggests there may be autism "clusters" around the country. But the story is more complicated than you might think. Our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the report.
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My husband and I are the parents of a severely autistic 4 year old child. We have had to become experts on the subject ourselves due to misinformation provided by media outlets and ignorant newscasters such as yourself.
We are upper income, African-American, and from South Texas. Imagine our surprise the morning of your "autism study" on CNN when you declared autism to only affect white families in areas like Beverly Hills, California.
We both sat there with our mouths agape in disbelief that you, being neither a physician or medical professional brushed away THE FACT that our only child suffers from autism based on race.
How dare you.
Our son was diagnosed with severe autism, not Asperger's Syndrome or PDD-NOS, but classic autism at the age of 19 months old. By an actual medical professional. The top specialist in the field in our state. Our family has been through the anguish of treatment options, daily behavioral therapy, special education IEP plans...the whole nine.
But according to YOU, our child couldn't possibly have autism, "it's only prevalent in white families". YOU SHOULD BE FIRED FOR SUCH UTTER, BIGOTED B.S.
Autism does not discriminate. There are many high profile families of different ethnic backgrounds whose children suffer from this condition. Jenny McCarthy is not the only autism parent in the world. She is simply the loudest and most obnoxious.
Holly Robinson-Peete and her husband have a child with autism, as does Toni Braxton, as do Tisha Campbell and Dwayne Martin. If you have never heard of these families, step out of your white-washed world. AUTISM DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE.
I'll also have you know, that in our son's special needs class there is only one "white" child with autism, the rest being Hispanic or other ethnicities.
You have angered a lot of parents already struggling emotionally with this diagnosis. You should be ashamed of yourself and issue a retraction.
I will also be contacting your higher-ups on this matter.
Tom your comment lends to your bad characture-did your parents mean to raise you as an idiot or did you get that stupid on your own !!
I think in many cases, autism is a crock of bull.
I think that these rich parents spend more time pursuing more money/careers that then spend with their children. They're bad parents.
And they are in denial about the impact of their priorities on their kids. And rather than admit the problem is how they are raising their kids, they blame a fictitious disease.
Just to clarify to some responding to my post...I was merely restating what was told to me and proposing a theory, or one explanation, as to why there is more autism diagnosis in affluent areas. For the person who called me uneducated, I am a mother of 3 with a post-grad degree. Also, I know of 2 families with severely autistic children, so while I don't know firsthand, I am aware of the struggles these families endure. All the best to you who are struggling.
@John, thanks for sharing from the "other side".
I'm no medical professional like many on this board seem to make themselves out to be in their fantasy world. However, I did read something in here that really caught my attention. People who wait to have children in life tend to be more affluent, b/c more often than not, they focused on higher education and then their careers. I'm kinda leaning toward the "older sperm" argument that someone made on here. Also Autism is a broad label...there is sooo much we don't know about our own biology and yet are too dumb to admit/accept it. I beleive there is an issue with slapping a needle in a young child's arm and filling their body full of drugs. Children develop at substantially different rates. All of the plastics, drugs that get expelled when we pee, and chemical contaminants readily found in "safe" water all over the country and all of the "safe" hormones pumped into cows, pigs and chickens are almost certain to affect the development of the child in the womb and early on in life as well. I don't think there is a "smoking gun" so much like old sperm, or vaccinations, or environmental pollutants....what if its all 3, ...or moreover, 100 different things that affect the mind's ability to develop properly?...that gets the blanket labels of Autism or Mental retardation?
Bottom Line: 220,000 Amish in America with ZERO Autism. But the CDC won't recognize this as proof that vaccines play a part in autism. Evil Government and the Almighty Dollar at Work for us. Why won't the CDC study this situation? Amish don't vaccinate. Maybe they also procreate well into their "later" years. Who knows.
It still continues to amaze me how much autistic parents continue to latch on to causes for autism such as vaccines and how so many different things are miracle cures (gluten-free diets, extensive behavior therapies and so on).
For the record, I am the parent of an autistic son on the spectrum with PDD/Asperger's, so I have some basis behind my words.
Autism is not caused by vaccines. This has been determined by numerous scientific studies. This does NOT mean, however, that vaccines may not be a contributing factor – only that vaccines are not a stand-alone primary cause.
And there are no magic solutions to a cure. What works for some autistics may not work for others.
I just wish that all of the energies that are being expended towards trying to find someone/something to BLAME for autism were redirected towards insurance companies and governments to get them to start actively and aggressively providing assistance and benefits for autistics. There are too many states that provide too few benefits. Autistics are NOT second-class citizens – unfortunately, society all too often tends to attach the "unworthy" tag to those that are challenged in any way – physically, behaviorally, and many other ways too numerous to mention.
We are all individuals, folks – and EVERYONE deserves a fair shake.
How many of you have contacted your legislators at the state and federal levels and asked them to help increase (or in some cases, retain) benefits for individuals diagnosed with autism?
If you haven't, it's not too late to make it one of your most important new year's resolutions for 2010.
Regina and Vel, you are two of the most ignorant people! Affluent areas usually mean better access to healthcare. Healthcare professionals are getting better at diagnosing as well. Maybe do some research and you will discover there are many reasons why autism is occuring. Let's see vaccines for a small percentage, ENVIRONMENTAL chemical load? Hello? There are consequences to our American lifestyle. Our children are suffering for it. The last thing parents with kids on the spectrum need is judgement. I don't care what you call it, just tell me why my son won't talk or make eye contact. Get off your high horses and help instead of hurt. Don't blame people for achieving what used to be the American dream...success. Be a better citizen and help the cause...go to Autism Speaks and educate yourselves on how you can help!
Highly educated parents are more likely to seek help for their children and have access to more resources, which result in higher diagnosis rates. No parent wants their child diagnosed as autistic, especially when the family lives in a state, which provides no insurance coverage for therapy and in a state where the public schools are not equipped to or refuse to provide necessary resources.
Part of the reason autism is clustered around wealth is our school systems are funded through taxes based on property values. Therefore more affluent school districts have more money for autism programs. We moved from one school district to another more affluent one, because of their autism program was so much better. Their teachers were specifically trained and experienced with autistic students. Our daughter saw much improvement working with these specialists. This program (and the school districts policies) were so well recommended that it attracted families with autistic children thus creating a cluster.
Note: Autism is a learning disability i.e. an educational diagnosis and not per se a health issue and thus not diagnosed by most health professionals but by educational professionals.
Also note some diagnosis do need to be questioned, but only those who have the knowledge and resources are capable of doing so! The educated and affluent are more concerned with their child's education. Note the number one parameter correlating of any child"s success in school is their parents income!
After watching this segment yesterday I found the reporting very lax, and tried unsuccessfully to find the report itself online. The tying of autism to "aflluent" parents is just plain bad science. My husband and I happen to have Ph.Ds in engineering, had our high functioning autistic son in our mid thirties, and just happen to have above average incomes. Now we live in a high tech town in Alabama, that has such a high rate of autism that universities come every summer to study our kids. Now Alabama is not known for being "affluent". My prison guard little brother, who is is definitely not "affluent" has a lower IQ autistic son (he actually fought to get the mental retarded label over the autism label), my school teacher nephew has a son that is just now going through the evaluations, and my husband's middle income cousin's son was diagonsed a couple of years ago. If the reporter would have looked into the other studies they might have found that other studies have found the clusters in high tech areas of the country, where odd smart people married other odd smart people. At my work I worked on a floor with about 90 people, five of us have children on the spectrum. Another co-worker in Texas, was one of three parents of autistic children in her department of 30 people. The cause definitely has a genetic link to it, not a money link. Our extended family has so much different levels of autism that we tend to view it as just part of our family quirks, but it definitely changes everyday life, and we worry about having enough money to last through the next generation. We do see where our son gets the therapies he needs because we have a good income, but our relatives have much lower incomes, and we are spread out across the country too much to combine resources, that the poorer kids do not get the therapies they need.
I am still very surprised that the "bad parent" cause is still being thrown around. I thought that most people now days actually know or are related to a family dealing with autism that the "bad parent, spoilt child" blame would be gone by now. It took two years and about $20,000 before we got an official diagnosis in Alabama. Some schools down here refuse to except a diagnosis from a peditrician, so you have to get on waiting lists at a university to get a proper diagnosis. I guess that is different in other parts of the country.
Interesting...there are 'pockets' of the population without Autism altogether (Amish, Quakers...) documented by the doctors who work with these populations. The Amish and Quaker populations do not get vaccinations......perhaps this should be investigated....or is Big Pharma wanting this fact ignored? Would be an easy enough link to find out.....interesting how it never appears in these populations...mmmmm
With all due respect, most psychologists are either afraid or unaware of how to be human, so they try to find answers through studying other people and inevitably wind up supplying textbook based reasoning and opinion on matters totally beyond their personal capacity.
It’s not a matter of wealth; it’s a matter of perception: if a person is somehow discouraged from demanding answers to their questions and then condensing and triangulating the information, especially involving their own children’s health, then they are either too slow, too submissive or too overwrought to handle the responsibility of having children in the first place.
If a person never learns to treat others with a degree on the wall equally in every respect to themselves, while acknowledging only their questioned-until-proven-and-verified-if-justified expertise, then neglected children are going to be classified as being autistic by people not qualified as normally functioning human beings.
Then the child might be put on a regimen of medication within about five minutes of the diagnosis and one day, they will grow up, and while some will be turned into emotional cripples for the remainder of their lives by having their adolescence ripped away from them like an arm or a leg, a select few will realize and accept that they got reamed, by everyone they were taught to trust and learn to move on and live better than their unaware torturers ever will in terms of business and pleasure.
Yeah, you could say I’m one of the first to successfully work my way through the maze of stupidity and paranoia surrounding autism and survive relatively intact, but it took me until the age of 25 to get completely free, which was a little over two years ago. All I ever needed was for my parents to be parents, but mine were too immature, despite their ages in terms of years, so they palmed me off into a system that has a monetary incentive to ensure an ample supply of cripples. They were too slow, too submissive and too overwrought and were incapable of making a decision between money and family, and in terms of money, six figures each is nothing to be proud of when it comes at the cost of a young man’s youth and happiness.
This is reality, and it's worse than most people could ever imagine.
You obviously have never met a child or a family that has a child with autism. My nephew has autism. Parents do not pay to fight a diagnosis of mental retardation because they are overwrought with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills trying to help their child because insurance does not cover many autism treatments. My family has spent unknown tens of thousands of dollars hoping and praying that one day my 6 six old nephew will be able to speak and live a somewhat "normal" life. It appalls me to read your comment saying that these clusters might be linked to "clusters of money." Many parents of children with autism are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the outlandish medical bills. These "handsomely paid" professionals are the speech therapists, aba therapists, aba coordinators, occupational therapists, and life skills therapists. The list goes on and on. So next time you decide to make an uneducated statement on families living with autism, maybe you should actually walk in their shoes and see what kind of fight they are up against before you speak.
Intellectual disabilities and autism can coexist. About 60-70% of children w/autism score below average in intelligence, although it is true that these children are sometimes difficult to test due to autism.
Regina,
It is clear that you have never been around an autistic person before. There is a big difference between a mentally retarded person and an autistic person. It is not that wealthy parents are paying doctors more to "pay" for the autistic diagnosis. Just 15 years ago autistic people were diagnosed as mentally retarded and if it weren't for those families 15 years ago not accepting that diagnosis, an effective diagnosis/treatment/cure would never be achieved. We are at least to the point that we can diagnose autism, which is a huge step. Get a clue and do a little research before you make a comment that makes you look stupid.
And then there are the teachers who are dedicated to "finding" these clusters. My daughter was a late talker – didn't really start until she was almost four.
Her preschool teacher tried to convince us that the doctor was wrong, and that she was autistic. Even went to far as to rip up some of her work and tell her (and us) that she would never learn to read or write.
She's a college freshman now, and received a 3.4 average in her first semester...
That is one of the silliest comment I have ever heard. I have a son who has Autism, and when he was 2 (4 years ago), I had a doctor tell me my son had "Autistic traits", but wasn't Autistic. He wasn't formerly diagnosed until he was 4 1/2. There are still a huge group of physicians who have no idea about diagnosing Autism and groups these kids in the mentally retarded category. My son is 6, has moderate traits including severly delayed speech, sleep problems, and melt downs. He is extremely intelligent though. "Mental Retardation" is based on societies antiquated measures of cognizant skills, and speech is a major factor in the IQ test.
Well, I was 28 when my son was born; my husband was 26. He works in law enforcement, with some college; I'm a stay at home mom and I didn't go to college. At the time my son was born my husband was barely making $65K a year. We lived in SoCal and in a community that is mainly agriculture without farming regulations(burn whenever they want, dispose of farm chems whenever and wherever they feel). My husband is white and I'm Hispanic. Our second child was born five years later. Both kids are autistic and I still don't see how they became autistic! There's no genetic link since both sides of the family do not have cognitive problems. We have private insurance but no one to yea or nay our ABA. We're the ones in limbo.
My first-born son is autistic. On the flip-side of Regina P's comment; the professionals helping us with him seem to imply that poorer or "below middle-class" parents are more likely to refuse a diagnosis of autism because they can't be bothered to deal with it, or because of the social stigma. This causes huge frustration to the professionals as they have to sit back and watch the child struggle as they then are not permitted to help the child.
Interesting indeed. I know of some parents you describe and I will agree to an extent. I think it's critical to find the "right" diagnosis, deal with it and move on with therapy, and anything else that will help. I have experienced some of the parents you describe above, but don't rush to think that all children are either autistic or mentally retarded. I had an IGNORANT mother at school comment to me that a child that walks on her toes is autistic!! Please, Oh spare me the dumb, and uninformed....
I searched and did diagnostic testing from birth to age 6 on my child. EVERY test came back normal including (MRI, genetic testing,etc) with a final diagnosis of mild mental retardation/intellectual disability from a neuropyschologists. My child even attended a school masking itself as a speech/language, only to find that it was mostly filled with autistic children that did display behavioral, social and emotional delays, some more then others.
Some parents truly are in DENIAL, some are not. Let's make it OK to use the diagnosis that your child is processing information slower than the IQ rating of 70 and eliminate the shame starting with parents.
My child doesn't know she's slow, but she does know she's loved and cared for by her family and neighbors.
I have a 13 year old son with autism and I promise you we are not even close to being wealthy. And our insurance doesn't cover autism, but it would cover MR. Why on earth would someone fight a mental retardation diagnosis and prefer an autism diagnosis?
With autism, I promise you there is NO SUPPORT, NO HELP, NO EMPATHY, and NO UNDERSTANDING. Thank God my husband and I stopped at one child because we are completely overwhelmed and it gets harder every day, every minute. He is, hands down the greatest joy in our lives but who will take care of him when he's an adult? With the stress we are under, I don't see us living long enough to get old. I constantly worry, who will take care of him.......
Regina might be right. I do not know. All I know is I have a son who is not mentally retarded AND has Autism. I know other children like him. I know other children who do not have Autism, yet are mentally retarded. Of course, I do not know many wealthy parents.
that seems to be a no-brainer...wealthy, highly educated parents will undoubtedly have much better health insurance, which allows them to afford the numerous visits to the pediatrician/psychologists/behavioral specialists it takes to finally get a diagnosis. who else could afford one 50$ copay after another (and a big, fat deductible on top of it)?
Regina p That is the most idiotic statement I have ever heard !The only link is that educated parents can recognize the delays in progress in their young children,while uneducated parents fail to see the problems.The fact that educated people make more money is true,but no parent buys a diagnosis of autism for their child. A comment like yours shows your lack of an education.
My daughter is a young medical doctor with a 19 month old boy who doesn't say any words at all. Strangly, at about 12 months old, he said Mama and Papa, but stopped using those two words. I vaguely brought up the autism question, but she refuses to even consider her son might have such a problem. He understands a lot of what is being said or asked of him, but just doesn't talk... My daughter refuses to see a specialist about this...
As a mother of an austistic son, I find the scope of this article interesting yet the underlying message of wealth and ability to diagnose/treat disturbing. Here are the similarities for me:
Both my children were born at Stanford University Medical Ctr. – I had my autistic son at the age of 36. We lived in an affulent area – I had a well paying job in finance, yet I do not have a higher education. When my son was diagnosed (age 22 months), I had an average salary, still was able to notice the signs of autism (and gee something just isn't right instinct). By then we had moved just outside Phoenix, AZ – and did not have health insurance. So, is it where the child was born, the parents, where the child is diagnosed or is it just that they scientific world is just grappling with the how, what, where, when and whys?? Only God truly knows why our children are born as they are. My son is a blessing just as he is and with continued therapies he shows improvements in his challenged world all the time. I appreciate all the small and larger achievements – as should we all.
Regina is very correct in her post. Having been a special educator for more than 20 years, wealthy parents find it far more palatable to have a child on the "spectrum" than mentally disabled.
@Regina Out of curiosity what would be the point of doing that? I don't believe there are any differences in medical coverage. Is it just that they would rather have someone say autistic instead of something else?
There are many issues to confound the finding that must be controlled for.
Regional differences in parental influence on diagnosis is only one.
An expansion of the spectrum to include kids that would have ordinarily been diagnosed elsewhere or just simply be considered "quirky."
Regional differences in culture, nutrition, prenatal care, parental age, parental involvement.
Overanxious professionals and parents with the need to diagnose essentially normal but unusual behavior.
I could keep going on. By the way, I'm a recently retired school psychologist who has never been pressured by a parent to diagnose autism. Just the opposite
I can't even believe that in 2010 we are still even having this debate. Anyone who looks at the correlation between the increased number of vaccinations will see a direct correlation with the increased number of autism diagnosis'. You can't put mercury, coal tar, formaldahyde, antifreeze, aborted babies, monkey brains, cow parts, and chicken guts into vaccines and expect an average 10 pound baby to absorb a "safe" amount of known neurotoxins. By the way, the "safe" amount is slated by the FDA for adult weights. Not to mention, it's vaccine by vaccine. Which means if a baby gets too many vaccines in a short time, their little body hasn't recovered from the first set of overdosed neurotoxins before their body is assaulted again!!! How about the reason why there's more autism in the affluent areas, is because they have health insurance and see to it that their child is immunized on time. Isn't it funny how autism doesn't exist in the religious sects around our country? They don't believe in vaccinating! The funny thing is, they do believe in interbreeding..................GO FIGURE THAT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!
And before anyone writes back and asks why don't all kids have autism if vaccines were to blame.............there's two factors involved here. First, there's a correlation with testosterone (probably why more males than females have autism) and second, slow-to-develop livers in some babies make it either impossible, or very slow for them to excrete the neurotoxins.
Also, the same ingredients they stick in our kids, is against the law to put in our dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it really any shock that wealthier parents are better equipped to secure an autism diagnosis than poorer parents? It gives their children special attention and benefits, so why wouldn't they hire the "best" docs to grant them that status? The headline shouldn't be that there are "autism 'clusters' in affluent areas", it should read "clusters of autism diagnoses in affluent areas". A diagnosis doesn't make it real. Few kids are truly autistic...the rest simply have behavioral problems that need to be dealt with.
Seems like the better off parents have the resources available to
get the care and diagnosis needed. Maureen Cole II agrees.
I couldn't see this video due to connection issues, but I'd be wiling to bet areas with a lot of geeky people – silicon valley, for instance – will have more autistic kids. Autism is genetic folks; give up your MMR-vaccine pipe dream. Only the dumbest of the dumb still believe autism is caused by a vaccine.
It's obviously vaccine related. I just read a study about well-to-do parents vaccinating their kids (H1N1, MMR, ETC) at greater percentages than compared to the national average.
Regina, You obviously have never met a child or a family that has a child with autism. My nephew has autism. Parents do not pay to fight a diagnosis of mental retardation because they are overwrought with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills trying to help their child because insurance does not cover many autism treatments. My family has spent unknown tens of thousands of dollars hoping and praying that one day my 6 six old nephew will be able to speak and live a somewhat "normal" life. It appalls me to read your comment saying that these clusters might be linked to "clusters of money." Many parents of children with autism are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the outlandish medical bills. These "handsomely paid" professionals are the speech therapists, aba therapists, aba coordinators, occupational therapists, and life skills therapists. The list goes on and on. So next time you decide to make an uneducated statement on families living with autism, maybe you should actually walk in their shoes and see what kind of fight they are up against before you speak.
My first thought was EXACTLY what Regina said. If you are poor and your child has behavioral or learning problems, then people generally accept it as being due to poverty, lack of nutritious food, lack of a good school system, and other environmental factors. However, when you are rich and these factors are taken away, then you end up with a diagnosis of some sort, either autism or ADHD. I'm sure there are quite a few autistic children out there in the poorer areas that simply haven't been diagnosed, either due to lack of health care, lack of parental knowledge that there is a problem beyond an environmental one, and lack of knowledge of other caregivers (daycare, preschool, and extended family) to such issues.
I find it hard to believe that being from an affluent area makes one more prone to autism any more than being from a poor area makes one more prone to say asthma. It's just not diagnosed as much in the poorer population due to a number of factors.
I don't doubt what the school psychologist told you, Regina. However, many times children with autism are just given the label of "Mental Retardation" when that is not necessarily the case. Only a trained physician in the area of autism can tell the difference, since children with autism learn differently.
As a result of their different learning style(s), they are often just called mentally retarded, and that way the school doesn't feel obligated to spend much time or money on them, because "they just won't get it."
As a parent of an autistic child, I understand the importance of getting a correct diagnosis in order to get the proper help that your child needs.
I can't believe this is news... I heard this 20 years ago as a psych student in university. Great to get the story spread though.
or it may be linked because proper diagnosis costs (better more expensive doctors) money not necessarily be that a doctor is incorrectly diagnosing becaue someone is paying them too.
Sounds more like Münchausen syndrome by proxy than anything real. Hope their kids never get really sick. Wait till govt runs health care more and they get tired of blowing money on autism. You'll see the rate go down as funding dries up.
My nephew, Nicholas was diagnosed at about 21/2 years old. He was babbling, had eye contact and played like a "normal" kid. After a series of shots that kids get, things changed, according to my sister. Nicholas stopped doing all of the things he was doing and after a series of doctors visits, she and her husband were told that he was autistic. She never uses the words mental retardation and is very hopeful that something will come in a breakthrough for Nicholas and the many children suffering with this handicap. He's a happy and well taken care of child. And my sister, Catherine works non-stop at taking care of his every needs. And she does this alone, as she lost her husband in 2004 to Liver Cancer(never drank or smoked) at 40 years old. Then Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and they are now living in Texas where Nicholas is in an excellent life-skills school. He is still not potty trained and has only recently started speaking words. He is 13 years old.
Regina is correct, my sister is a special education instructor in NYC and you see parents of kids with Down Syndrome and mental retardation demanding a co diagnosis of autsim because their parents know that will get them more specialized sevices
There is a clear link between severe sensory integration dysfunction and autism. I know many people with advanced degrees including myself who have a milder form of sensory integration dysfunction. I find that my dysfunction provides me with the ability to speed read and the ability to remember images in great detail. This makes me wonder if there is a disproportional amount of the population who have sensory integration dysfunction, advanced degrees, and more affluent jobs. The clustering of people in this group could account for the SID genetic makup of an autism cluster...
There is a very simple explanation. Autism is so overly diagnosed and many badly behaved children are given this lable. It makes affluent parents feel better about themselves knowing that their spoiled brat children (who don't listen to them), are behaving that way because of a condition, and not their parenting skills.
They should also collect data in this same study on how many of these rich children have never been told "no", or have actually been punished or grounded for misbehaving. There are children with real Autism, and then there are children with the "don't listen to parents" disease .
I wish the American press would re-publish the findings of a recent Israeli study (sample size 10,000) which shows a strong correlation between older fathers and autism. Women have known for the past four decades the dangers of getting pregnant during middle age. Unlike the male myths of being able to sire offspring at any age, old sperm equates to a higher risk with each passing decade. A fifty year old man is 7 times likely to sire a child with autism than a man in his twenties. Wise up America!!! How many younger women date or marry an older, poor man. Clusters of autism is wealthy areas. Do you need any more proof of a direct correlation between older sperm and autism?
CNN Elizabeth Cohen needs to talk to real parents with Real kids on the Autism Spectrum before going on national TV with a "Story Of why Autism is ". When she lives in the shoes a week of a parent of a child that is on the REAL autism spectrum then maybe she will understand what she is talking about. I invite her to visit us walk in our shoes for a week,and fight the battles with the state, school system, insurance companies, plus try and meet the needs of a child on the autism spectrum with what she would consider Low income. Most families have one that is on the autism spectrum and one or more children that are not. Better than that come spend a week with a family with twins on the autism spectrum. Not impressed with story..
Also- it's entirely possible that those who lack funds and healthcare do not know, or have the money, to bring their child to appropriate professionals for diagnosis. A poor, inner-city child is much more likely to be labeled with a mood or personality disorder (conduct disorder, operational defiant disorder) than a wealthy child.
How is this a link to autism? Educated parents who have insurance and are not in "denial" over their "quiet" child will report/seek treatment for their kids while the poor familys are not and cannot. Real rocket surgery fellas...
Interesting note, regina. I have been convinced that the rediagnosing of mental retardation as "autism" happens all of the time. I suspect it is a lot easier for a parent to find a "reason" that it's "not their fault" when it comes to a not perfect child. I also think that autism is often a way to pigeonhole kids, as "normal" and "not". I'm fairly sure I would have been diagnosed autistic, via Asperger's Syndrome, when I was young. Am I normal? Is anyone?
Interesting. I know a school psychologist who tells me that many wealthy parents refuse and fight a diagnosis of mental retardation if given one and instead hire their own professionals (and pay them handsomely) to place their child in the autism spectrum. So these clusters might be linked to the cluster of money, as well.