Seeing as April is Autism Awareness Month, more media attention is being paid to the autism spectrum of disorders than at any other time.  As a result, many of these articles are about the rise of autism.  Is it an epidemic or simply a rise in diagnoses?  Today, Autism News Direct will provide you links to several different stories that address this question from a variety of viewpoints.
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Mark Roth of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has published a new story taking a more in-depth look at the rise in autism diagnoses over the past two decades.  Some autism organizations claim that the United States is currently facing an autism epidemic.  Roth reports on a 2006 study by Paul Shattuck that looks at this dramatic rise in autism.  From the Roth story:

A 2006 study in the journal Pediatrics found, for instance, that the national increase in identified autism cases in elementary schoolchildren between 1984 and 2003 had been paralleled by a similar decrease in the number of children labeled as retarded or learning disabled

The entire Roth article can be found on the Post-Gazette website.  For another look at explanations for the rise in autism cases, read The Autism “Epidemic”.

Source:  Mark Roth - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Online