RALEIGH, N.C. — National Autism Acceptance Month is wrapping up, but the efforts to bring awareness continue year-round.
Based on 2016 data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the prevalence of autism found in children ages 4 and 8 in the United States has been increasing over previous years. Data also shows the prevalence of ASD found in 8-year-olds in North Carolina was higher than the national average, while the prevalence detected in 4-year-olds in the state was lower.
BlueSprig Clinical Supervisor, Leah Idichandy works with children with autism. She said there’s always going to be a need for more support resources. She said it’s something that is not only a state issue but a nationwide one as well.
“We have expanded the criteria for the diagnosis actually, which why more people are being diagnosed at a higher rate, but beyond the mere awareness that autism exists I think that we should create spaces where they are accepted and that they are loved and understood,” Idichandy said.“We have expanded the criteria for the diagnosis actually, which why more people are being diagnosed at a higher rate, but beyond the mere awareness that autism exists I think that we should create spaces where they are accepted and that they are loved and understood,” Idichandy said.
Aisha Williams, a mom of one of the children that Idichandy works with, said services need to be more accessible. She’s been put on waitlists, and financial challenges can get in the way.
“Like it’s hard, being a single mom, doing everything, there’s a lot of things that I don’t qualify for because they deem you make too much or these different things when we know a livable wage is nowhere near where those numbers are,” Williams said. “So, I think if there were more places that offered services or different things that weren’t based on income that has some other type of way to deem need.”
According to UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network from 2002 to 2014 shows North Carolina’s estimated rate of cases was higher than the national average.
In 2016, the prevalence was even higher than previous estimates. This outcome could be the result of a 2016 study on 8-year-olds who were watched in a smaller geographic region compared to prior studies. That region may have also had high levels of access to support
UNC also said that the CDC published a report last year that includes data from 2020, but North Carolina was not included in the most recent report. The state did not receive funding to continue the project after 2020.
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