My nephew and a young cousin. Nephew was diagnosed around age 3 or 4, and he just started college this year. My sister and BIL put in a huge amount of effort getting help for him.

My cousin wasn't diagnosed until recently, and is having serious health issues with anorexia - she's a HS senior - very high functioning, but the anorexia is so severe she's been hospitalized a number of times.

Wow - the part about uninsured kids not receiving care is striking. I work in city recreation and see hundreds of school-age kids every year. We've had a number of children over the years who clearly needed help and weren't getting it, and my state has some issues with insurance for lower income families.

My neighbor is a high functioning autistic pediatrict doctor. Sadly her son is autistic and is fully dependent on her. Autism is inheritable.

Some of us, including himself, think my brother is on the spectrum. But he is 68, and when he was a child it wasn’t ”a thing”. I have some of Mom’s notes now, and have talked about some of them with our cousin who works in special ed, and those plus knowing my brother make her fairly certain he is on the spectrum, Aspberger’s. My brother has been doing some reading and thinking, and he is also certain. For me, it has helped me with how I interact with him. I am more direct with him, and more understanding, and have adapted my expectations without minimizing them. He is also brilliant, and multi-interested. Our mutual thinking about his possible diagnosis has helped us communicate better.

My DBIL is developmentally disabled, and my DMIL says that he also has autism. I don’t know enough about how they intersect, but we love one another and have a lot of fun.

No one in my family but I 'know' many as I have worked with Autistic kids for years. https://www.sciencealert.com/common-plastic-additive-linked-to-autism-and-adhd-scientists-discover 

Perhaps this tells the tale of it's increase. Perhaps not. There are many who point fingers concerning Autism and it's sudden increase in cases. Much like allergies and other anomalies that seem to link back to the number of chemicals our bodies are exposed to.

Autism's understanding/descriptions/how we deal with it has changed greatly over the past 40 years. When I was in school we studied it as a communication disorder. Today it is recognized as much more than that. This would lead to me think we have yet to fully define or understand it.

What seems prevalent is that it is an umbrella term with many causes and many outcomes.

My adult son is on the spectrum. When he was 3 he started receiving special ed services through our local school district. That continued until he was in 8th grade when we had him discharged. They honestly did not help him much as they couldn’t figure him out. He is extremly high functioning—started reading at 2 1/2, excelled in math, etc etc.—but struggles socially. We suspected Aspergers, but it was new and they did not know much about it. He went on to attend a prestigious prep school and onto college and got a job with a national insurance company. After working for 18 months, he was laid off. I honestly don’t think it was a good fit. He went on and got a masters degree and had himself tested for Aspergers, which he has. We found a woman who works with adults with AS on job coaching. He found a job in the math field and has been working for them for over 10 years. I think he is under-employed, but is hesitant to look for a new job. He lives with us, working remotely since covid and has no friends. All I want for him is to be happy. In his own way, I guess he is, but it’s hard to tell as these conversations are difficult.

It's likely being diagnosed more often because they are learning more about it. Not that there are more people who have it. They always had it, only people didn't know what to call it. They were kookie or eccentric, for instance. It's not happening because of chemicals in foods or vaccines.

Yes, my niece's son is autistic, non-verbal, and dependent on a caregiver. .

I have a nephew. My sister never admitted to us that he had issues. Of course it was obvious to the rest of us and now it is clear he is on the spectrum.

When he finished HS she enrolled him in a vocational school where he completed every trade they had. However it went no where as far as employment.

He did wind up one job in a earing aid factory. When they let him go, he started his own online photograhy business.

Like nhb, he still lives at home and his social life is interacting with others interested in photography. No IRL socialization.

While autism wasn't a thing back then, we did know that he wasn’t developing the way he should.

My sister was in denial and kept saying he was just like our brother. Sorry no. My brother was a rambunctious child no doubt, but totally normal.

I think that early intervention is key.

Yes a full support is needed to help with children in this state but it is very hard to do early intervention as most of the studies show that between two and four years old is when you should be beginning help. Most children aren't even recognized for mental health till later in their lives.

Not to lecture or anything but because I become very uncomfortable with the word and wonder if others do too. I am referring to Asperger's syndrome. It is named after a very very bad man who was a Nazi and a killer of mentally challenged children. I mean no offense and I'm perhaps overly sensitive to the origin of that word. Plus some people might not associate it as said in the article with autism in general and that might cause its own difficulties perhaps?

Now we use the phrase autism spectrum disorder ASD. For high functioning autistics that is just what they are called now.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/does-asperger-syndrome-still-exist-259944#:~:text=However%2C%20he%20did%20not%20coin%20the%20term.&text=One%20reason%20it%20was%20retired,disabilities%20under%20the%20Third%20Reich.

The article below talks a bit about early intervention.

https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/treatments/early-intervention#:~:text=Early%20interventions%20occur%20at%20or,effective%20in%20the%20longer%20term.

To answer the question yes I have a family member who is autistic. He is classic high-functioning with other disorders that make it very difficult for him. He had early intervention but with the other related problems which were not recognized did not have great outcome and is dependent and unable to work.

I think that early intervention is key.

My children, ages 19 - 24 all grew up with autistic children around them in school. They all received therapies starting when they were two to three years old. The children we have kept in touch with are all doing well. Their parents were, however, quite aggressive in obtaining treatment and accommodations as necessary. Of course these are children who could go to regular school, so they were not terribly disabled. There are other much more severe cases, like the founder of Nest Fragrances whose adult son is not verbal, though he is making huge strides with very intense and individual help.

Our public school system begins testing and offering treatment options at two or three, I forget which. You need not be enrolled in the public school in order to avail yourself of the services they offered. One of my sons had speech therapy at the public school while attending private school, for example.

My SIL’s adult son is on the spectrum; he is relatively high functioning, holds a job and lives at home; he also has BPD and other issues, so hard to say what’s what. I’ve never discussed it in depth with his parents. I believe his father and at least one brother are also on the spectrum, but higher functioning. For those interested, I recommend the fascinating book “Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity” by Steve Silberman.

My family has no diagnosed people on the spectrum, but I know two people with children who have autism (at different places on the spectrum)........A good friend of mine has a young adult son, and someone I work with has an 8 year old son. I don't know if it is truly more cases, or more diagnosed cases.

This is a TED Talk from the author China suggested above.

A friend of mine teaches preschool. Each year there are more and more children on the spectrum.

Zalco, thank you for posting that video!

I do wonder whether the increase those of us who encounter lots of kids experience nowadays might be due in part to the fact that kids with disabilities are no longer kept out of the mainstream. When I was in school (1960s/70s), kids with disabilities either stayed at home or went to a 'special' school. Unlike now (thanks mostly to the ADA, I think) no accommodations were made for them - or adults either.

As an aside, I read earlier today that many more people have ADHD/ADD than we might realize.

My youngest son, my granddaughter,my grandson. My grandson iscompletely nonverberbal. Kali is very high functioning. My son is getting by. He went to a theraputic school. Can’t tell it helped.