One in a MILLION!

1 in 88? Nope. 1 in a MILLION!

… and here I am again… staring at the ceiling. It could be that I am still excited from meeting John Elder Robison earlier tonight. Maybe I am still geeked up from beating my boss in our NBA 2K12 league? I don’t think that is it though.

 Here we are a couple of days out from Autism Awareness Month, a few days away from Autism Awareness Day and the CDC has rocked me. Why? I don’t know. Does it really come as any surprise at all to anybody with a child on the spectrum and in the autism community that the diagnosis rate is higher than previously thought? Not I.

M&M’s (Miraculous and Motivating)

With motivation, people can accomplish amazing things. They can lose weight, run a marathon, learn new skills, climb mountains or throw themselves out of planes. Most people find motivation on their own and without the help of others, sometimes they need a gentle push. People get inspired and use that to their advantage to do things that they might not otherwise attempt to do.

For kids on the spectrum, motivators are often found by the parents. They vary as greatly as the individuals on the spectrum themselves. Some have a favorite toy, others a reward system like stickers. Some get rewarded with food like McDonald’s fries or a favorite fruit.

A Real Concern

If you are an autism parent, you have all sorts of information stored in your brain that B.A. (Before Autism) you would have never imagined knowing. You know “1 in 110”. You know about self-funded and fully funded health insurance. You have learned a string of acronyms that made your head spin when you first heard them, but you now rattle off like a maestro conducting Beethoven’s 5^th.

If you have done any investigating into research and funding, I am also certain you have come across, as I did when researching for my “Fixing” Autism video, that more children will be diagnosed this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined.

This is a pretty startling statistic. But bring that statistic up, and right away proponents of other causes go on the defensive. The most common argument that I have seen used is the following:

“AIDS, diabetes and cancer will KILL you! They are terminal! I have never heard of anybody dying of autism!”

It is usually also preceded or followed by insults.