"There is definitely evidence to say that changing diagnosis and better awareness has a significant effect," says Halladay. "The criteria for diagnosis is changing, and that’s lead to more children being diagnosed." She adds that the increase in general awareness among everyone in a child’s life-from parents to daycare workers to pediatricians-probably also helps. "I think it could be a combination of prevalence and diagnosis," says Alexandra Perryman, a board-certified behavior analyst and lead clinician at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC Theiss Early Autism Program. There’s a lot of disagreement among experts about whether or not this increase reflects more people actually having an autism spectrum disorder, or more diagnoses due to increased awareness and screenings. Stats on autism can vary, but the CDC estimates that about one in 68 children in the United States had an autism spectrum disorder between 20, compared to one in 150 in 2000.
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