1 in 36.
I just saw this statistic on the CDC website, released this month.
The CDC conducted this survey in 2020 with kids born in 2012. (Jonah was born in 2013)
There were around 4 million children born in the US in 2012. If 1:36 children born that year are autistic, that means around 111,111 children were born in 2012 in the US somewhere on the autism spectrum.
When Jonah was diagnosed in 2016, that number was 1 in 68.
What does this mean?
Well, the chance my kids are somewhere on the “autism” or “autism-like” spectrum is already 100% so, as a parent, the prevalence of autism as a whole has very little to do with our lives, because we are already living it.
Except for THIS.
Here’s the statistic that concerns me the most:
Autism service-related therapies available.
Take speech therapy as an example…
The MAIN impediment for children with autism is a delay in speech. I would say nearly ALL children diagnosed with autism are referred to a speech therapist of some kind.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, as of 2021, there are 147,470 speech-language pathologists employed in the U.S.
Some are employed at hospitals or nursing care facilities, some at elementary or secondary schools, and some as part of another health practice.
I know some kids receive speech therapy at school, and some at a service center, but the MOST progress I ever saw Jonah make with any sort of therapist was done right here in our home.
And of those 147,470 SLPs, there are only 3,530 “Individual and Family Service” practicing Speech Therapists in the ENTIRE country.
There is such a high demand for autism-related services, some kids are waitlisted for years and are being left behind.
The story has been the same for us. Jonah will get on several months or years-long waiting lists, receive services for a few months, be dropped from services, and then be placed back on waiting lists.
Over and over and over.
We’ve done in-home therapy. We’ve done school therapy. We’ve done on-site therapy.
And now we are again, waitlisted.
So what does “1 in 36” mean to me?
It means I really REALLY REALLY hope that the number of SLP’s and other specialists in fields related to autism are also increasing at the same rate.
#ausome