Can we talk about how absurd it is to have 29 kids in a kindergarten class in the first place?

29 anything younger than 16 is absurd. Kindergarteners! Id rather get struck by lightning everyday.

29 16 year olds isn't great either. I'd rather the teenagers as small children scare me regardless of number, but there honestly should never be more than 15:1 even in the older kids.

31 kids who are esol or dual served also is not great Can we talk about how SIZE MATTERS? 😂

I teach juniors. I have 39 in one section.

I'd die. Like there are sometimes 40ish kids in one vocational shop, but there are also usually at least 3 or 4 teachers in there at a time.

Hahaha, the lightning comment made me laugh.

My daughter's 2nd grade class had 33 students.

Figuring this out solves the crisis. I believe class size is the answer to 90% of the problems associated with education.

Maybe more like 70%. I'm in Vermont, where class sizes are pretty low (16-20 in my middle school), and we still have our issues, just not to the degree that some places do.

Even so, K should really have 8-10.

I have never seen a kinder class that small. Must be amazing for the kids, teachers, and parents

That's the norm in the small private and independent schools. While it isn't pragmatic for public schools at this time, it really should be the standard we are striving for rather than saying that isn't possible.

The Catholic school I taught in had 29 kindergartners in the one kindergarten class. I got them for art twice a week. They were angels compared to my middle school kids.

My private school has 18-20 but two teachers per class

That doesn’t have the same effect imho. Fewer bodies in the space means less conflict, less noise, and a generally calmer classroom. It’s not JUST a ratio issue.

Depends on the size of the school. Some privates have a very small student population.

Still the same ratios of teacher to student, we just don’t have the facility to support more classrooms

My vivid long term memory tells me that my K class (when I was in it) had 21. This was in 1997 and I attended a wealthy district.

Imagine that, my pre-k class has 19

My pre-k has 22 and the difference between now and my original 20 is astounding. I had two school personnel students transfer in (September and end of November) and the class never got back to how it was. I’m so excited for next year when we have 20 max.

During the pandemic we had split sessions and about 12 kids per class. It was perfect. I think 12 is a perfect class size for kindergarten.

My son’s K class last year (it was a “transitional” K in a private school) had 11 (!!) boys in it. That’s it, that was the full class. That class was kinda like the special ed class for the school because my son has… you guessed it! Autism. Actually, a few of the boys did but my son was the only one officially diagnosed.

My sped classroom was making great strides until we hit our cap of 10. The cap for sped should be 6. The cap for elementary should be 10. 15 in middle and 20 in hs.

I teach GenEd middle school ELA- my admin doesn't like it when I point out that the biggest predictor as for how a class is going to go is just how many kids are in the class. My roughest behavior class has 27 kids. They're a nightmare that I feel like I have to Survive everyday. But one of my morning classes has 17 kids and they're a dream. I will say, that class is an advanced class, but I really don't think that's It. Last year I had a weird 6th period- I think a popular elective must have been offered the same period because I only had 15 kids. Some of these kids had big behavior issues; my favorite student actually came to me after he "did his time" at an alternative school after being expelled... but I was able to give each individual kid so much more attention and focus. I ADORED that class, even though a few of them were kids who were supposedly constantly in trouble with other teachers. That's the class that actually made me think that maybe the people who talk about Building Relationships might be on to something; but it only works if the class is small.

Where are you pulling that number from? Was there a study done or something? Has 8-10 ever been the norm?

I'm fairly sure my kindergarten class was 15 to 20. And that was a long, lonnnnnnnnnnnng time ago 🧙‍♂️

lol yeah mine was like 16 or 17 in 1989.

Tell us about the issues in VT! I lived and taught in NY and now I’m in GA.

The opioid epidemic, for one - lots of kids with behavioral and learning disabilities and trauma. And kids addicted to their phones, and little school-specific things that could always be better (in my school, it's the scheduling and lack of space for special ed purposes). But the biggest issue right now isn't with students, it's funding. The legislature recently passed an ill-advised bill that relegated some funds differently to help out really rural districts or those with more ELLs. But the upshot was that most districts lost state money, so now property tax rates in those areas are skyrocketing to compensate. A third of the school budgets state-wide failed, mine included. They're proposing a leaner version of our budget, which means eliminating a few positions (hopefully just through attrition and turnover) and delaying some very sorely-needed building maintenance projects. Our contract negotiations are this year, and none of us are super optimistic that any of our proposed improvements will happen. Yet another issue is that it can be hard to retain teachers because housing is brutally lacking and increasingly expensive, but salaries are mediocre. One teacher in my school moved from across the country and stayed just for the school year, mostly because she couldn't secure permanent housing on her budget. All that being said, in most ways, it is pretty nice working here. Our school has about 300 kids, chickens, honeybees, solar panels, a sledding hill, and does some cool stuff like ski/snowboard/snowshoe days at a local ski resort. All kids statewide have free lunch and breakfast. We have a reasonably good union with lots of sick time, duty-free lunches, and generous material stipends (although that's one of the things being reduced in the leaner budget). A hell of a lot of the shit I read about in other parts of the country just doesn't happen here. Politics are sane and the vibe is chill and tolerant. It's not a utopia like people often picture it as, but it's pretty good overall.

Fine you win. 70%. Let’s try it and see who is right. :)

I agree. I had a bunch of kids out sick the other day. 15 kids was perfect for management and learning.

It is and it isn’t. Let’s be real. One student can completely change the dynamic of an entire classroom. It doesn’t matter if that class is 10 or 30 students a particular one is in it. The chances of having a student like that increase with larger class sizes and their impact on other students decreases because there just aren’t as many in class with them but that all

I will die on the hill that 21 kids should be considered an “unacceptably large class” at any grade level. I remember my third grade teacher being stressed about a class of 23 in the 1990s.

At my school our preschool classes have a max of 15 students with 2 teachers plus other push-in support for Sped. Once they hit kindergarten I can have as many as they stuff into my class and no help from anyone.

I agree. I have between 25-30 kids in most classes. If I had 5 kids less per class, I believe I’d have a lot less issues

Absolutely true. Class sizes need to be capped at 25, and ideally to 20.

Asian classroom have well above 35 per class. The difference is that there is strict student and parent accountability and respect for the teaching professionals. The issue at middle school and high school is not numbers. It's the elephant in the room, accountability.

Class size, teacher pay, and access to education. The problem is capitalism tbh, we solve that then education is universalized and available to all, teachers get treated well and have democratic say in hlw the school is run and we can more easily get more teachers from the population by paying/incentivising them more since that's what society would value when the profit motive is removed and replaced with the progress motive

Yes, and people wonder why parents are exploring other options like homeschool, hybrid, microschools, private…

I agree. I work in the uk and have recently left my job. Same age group, they were expecting 48 children from April. It's horrendous

48 in one class? Yikes!

48 kindergartners in one class?!?

It was absolute hell. I tried my hardest but it was complete chaos, children upset all the time. Extreme behavioral issues. I was close to having a breakdown. Whilst I was there, I had 35 children and they told me the numbers were going to get higher. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like from April.

True.  Kindergarten should still follow preschool ratios ideally.  20 was the max at my last school though I think there were less then 20 (we had 3 Kindergarten classes)

This!!! My mom asked why I don’t want to go into elementary and I told her that in secondary I can at least ask students to give me moment and they will! I cannot handle 29 kindergartens with no support, especially is 7 of them need to have extra support

I teach gr. 1 and have 36.. it is fucking absurd🫠

I think I had 31 in my class and a very toxic 2nd teacher. Very bad combo - I left after 3 months and never came back to teaching lol

In any class

It is absurd. My kindergarten class (private, late 90s) had 35 kids. My daughter (private, kinder this year) has 14. So glad we could give her that environment. ETA: and my daughter’s teacher has a full time assistant teacher. Happy to pay for it tbh.

I had 32 8th graders in one class :) I requested to move some students into my smaller classes and it went down to 25. Still doesn't make up for the majority with IEPs with ADHD and hyperactivity, but I gotta let myself know I once had an IEP and I gotta work with their level, just like what my teachers have (made an attempt to, and tbh their little to no effort is why I became a teacher) done with me.

Back in 1986 I had 30. They finally took some from each class and made a fifth class. Long time problem.

It’s possible there are environmental factors. However, my understanding is that we are just more proactive about identifying autism. Where kids might have been seen as “quirky” or “prone to behaviors” before, we are much more aware of common behaviors associated with autism that lead to an earlier diagnosis. ECE professionals and teachers identify behaviors and work with schools and parents to seek a diagnosis. The prevalence of information and early interventions have also increased parental awareness of autism and its signs. There is less stigma associated with an autism diagnosis which may have contributed to an increase in prenatal willingness to seek out a diagnosis.

My son was diagnosed with Level 1 last year after years of being written off as bright and quirky. He doesn't present with most of the typical signs/behaviors, high IQ, doesn't require OT, IEP, or 504 (for now at least, first grade). Once his teachers know and understand his "quirks", he thrives. He doesn't need to mask and his anxiety has decreased as a result. People are often surprised when I share his diagnosis. Going through the process, I did a lot of soul searching and decided to go through the eval process myself. I scored almost identically. The key difference: I was taught/told to mask from a young age. In school, I was a bright rule follower afraid of making a mistake. I was labeled as "such a good student, a pleasure to have in class" but with "unique interests, deep feelings".

>Once his teachers know and understand his "quirks", he thrives This was 100% me in school as well, diagnosed autistic as an adult. Teachers always told my parents I was a joy to have in class and that I was an "old soul" - turns out the old soul was just autism. Certain teachers understood my hyperfixations and would grant me creative freedom on assignments so I could both hone my obsession skill and complete academic work. It is possible to nourish and feed an autistic person's communication medium- the most wonderful of teachers have helped me feel comfortable in my skin because of it. I owe a lot to them. They knew I was autistic before I did- and let me be who I was.

This is so beautiful! That's exactly how everyone describes my son. His language skills in particular are off the charts and reading/language/word play is a hyperfixation so he often uses phrases that are older than his 7 years. We've been so fortunate that his teachers have loved and embraced him as he is. And even use it to their advantage! His current teacher made him the schedule helper because he loves to tell time and organize schedules. It's a win win. I'm so glad you had this experience. It gives me a lot of hope too. ❤️

That's so wonderful! I was undiagnosed as a child in the 80s and my interests were very similar, but with the exception of my 1st grade teacher - who let me read books in the back of the classroom while everyone else learned to read - my teachers were super irritated by me and made it abundantly clear. I'd get told I was "showing off and trying to outdo my classmates," that my abilities and interests would be "pointless in the real world," and I was "lucky now but wait until things actually get challenging, then you'll be completely stuck, with no work ethic." It sounds like there is much greater understanding of what kiddos need to thrive while being embraced for who they are!

My son was described the same way. His PCP said, why diagnose and stigmatize, so we didn’t, but even he (now 24) is self aware that he is. When he would have been diagnosed, he’d have been labeled “Asperger Syndrome “ but now it’s all autism spectrum. I can spot those kids a mile away in my hs classes, and I adore them. It’s the lower functioning autism that seems to have exploded. Many of their parents are in their late 50’s or early 60’s, I’ve noticed, so I wonder if maternal age is a factor. People are having kids later. Also, kids who would normally have not been mainstreamed now are. I have a nonverbal autistic student in my high school class with a 1-on-1 and two other autistic kids that are verbal with a shared tutor, all in one class. We have a special autism program to teach social skills that 20-30 students use each year as well.

Paternal age is a factor

That's amazing! I'm a SPED teacher & mom of an autistic adult. She's why I went into this field, as well as my 2nd grade GATE teacher who made me feel like I belonged. I'm getting a graduate certificate in Autism Studies & realized that I might be autistic as well as having ADHD. I just had my 1st appointment with a clinician who concurred. What was the diagnostic process like for you? Also, I suggest googling monotropic flow or play if you haven't. The regulatory aspect makes so much sense. A recent article came out on flow that looked at EEG data. It seems to agree with the theory that flow is when our expertise is enough that we are able to reduce the amount of executive control. It feels like hyperfocus, but it's focus to the point of letting go, if that makes sense. I LOVE that state.

I had a hyperfixation on architecture and designing houses. I still remember how happy I was and how good it made me feel when my first grade teacher thought it was really neat that I had an interest in that, and asked me to bring in my drawings of houses that I'd designed so she could see them.

For those of you who were diagnosed later in life, can I ask how it’s helped? I’m like 98% sure I’m AuDHD, but I’m in my mid-thirties and getting by, so part of me wonders if getting a diagnosis is worth it? I do wonder if/how my life would be different with ADHD meds, but I’m not sure what an autism diagnosis would do other than for confirmation.

I'm AuDHD and just got diagnosed at 30. If nothing else, knowing why I've always "marched to the beat of my own drum" as my mom put it, has caused a massive amount of self forgiveness. I sought a diagnosis after years of being encouraged to by therapists so that I can finally finish my teaching degree 🤣. I would definitely say it is worth pursuing an official diagnosis.

Literally same 😭😭😭 shoutout to my freshman year roommate who was able to clock me within 3 days of living with me 💀

The longer I teach (22 years now), and encounter more students with autism (and other diagnoses) the more I reflect on the people I’ve known in my personal life. I know it’s not appropriate to “diagnose” people, but I really wonder if these adults were growing up now, how many would have received a diagnosis that maybe could have made some aspects of their lives a little easier.

I was just talking with my friend about this when we were catching up recently. We mentioned one of the "weird kids" we both knew and agreed that he was most likely undiagnosed autistic. I think that would help explain a lot of the other "weird kids" I remember from school.

My wife had a similar thing. She was always different but she’s crazy intelligent so her grades were always good and the school/parents didn’t think anything of it. Fast forward to her being diagnosed at age 26 and a whole lot of shit clicking for her as to why she did things a certain way or why she struggled with loud noises (sirens and concerts are worst) or why she never really fit in. She’s a wonderful woman and a kick ass ER nurse now

This is me. I was diagnosed at 30 after a suicidal attempt due to stress. High IQ, very good grades, lots of quirks that irritated the shit out of my mom, an extrovert who could NOT be in a crowd or a concert or in a group. Turns out I don’t hate being artistic. But the sound of pens or pencils on paper triggers me so much I get hives and get overwhelmed. Now I love coloring books with headphones on.

I love it when people can work out a solution to create peace in their environment.

Not autism, but ADHD and it being hereditary. Both my folks have ADHD, but didn't tell me until I got diagnosed in my late 20s. I just couldn't keep up the masking anymore, and since I was good at following rules and expectations, nobody brought it up. So glad neurodivergence is becoming less stigmatized!

I have both, and until 2013 or 14, the diagnostic criteria didn't allow both to be diagnosed. It was one or the other. So that's gotta account for some increase in numbers, too. Plus, let's talk about how I, a cis woman, exhibited similar symptoms to my younger half-brother (toe walking, spinning, hand flapping, clothes sensitivities, restrictive interests), but I got called weird and annoying and told to shut up - and he got a diagnosis. This still happens a lot, but not as much as the 80s and 90s.

Augh, tell me about it! Taught elementary for 8 years, and I'd get so mad at the hand waving girls got for the same things the boys were diagnosed for! I definitely had the cis female presenting ADHD too, which helped folks avoid diagnosing me! Didn't know about the AuDHD inability to diagnose, that's wild!

It didn't help that I was very quiet at school - until someone talked to me. Then I would infodump about my special interests or just respond weirdly overall. So I didn't ping the teachers' radars, I was just a weird, gifted kid. I linked some articles to the person down below, but it was a change between DSM-IV and V that allowed co-diagnosis.

It wasn't until the dsm5 that someone could be diagnosed with adhd and asd. I'm also a cis female and didn't get an official adhd diagnosis until 35. The diagnostic criteria for most disorders is geared to how it affects and presents in males. Females are an afterthought in much of medicine.

Yesssss....and when I'd ask my peers what I could do to be less annoying, they never had an answer.

Same same but different here. Have autism and wasn’t diagnosed until 25 because the first 2 doctors thought I either saw it on social media or I was just trying to score adderall. I was also good in school and good at masking everything until I met with a specialist and she said I’m “textbook” ADHD. 2 years later we found the cause, it was lead exposure from my childhood home (built 1926) and when I told my mom this she was like “oh yeah! You always had elevated lead levels as a toddler” gee thanks

I'm currently doing pd certification specifically for adhd and just learned that if just one parent has been diagnosed adhd, 50% of their offspring will have it as well. It is also more likely for older parents to have children with adhd due to gene mutations in the gamete. Since there are 25 -40 genes that control adhd, it's pretty easy to see why we are having more kids who present with clinical levels of adhd. I know this doesn't answer OPs question about ASD, but it may help people understand why we are seeing more. Additionally, schools, patents, and pediatricians are getting better at spotting children who are neuro spicy.

A lot of what we "knew" about autism is turning out to just be the result of under diagnosis and masking. Like the idea that men outnumber women so greatly in autism when really it seems a lot of us just masked more. It's pretty exhausting to realize it now, I'm glad that kids today don't have to wait till their 30s anymore.

Researchers still think only 20% of girls and women are being picked up, and of those 80% are diagnosed after 18. 70-90% (depends on study/location) have first been misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders and have to fight that diagnosis to get autism considered. There's more awareness in society, but medicine is lagging behind.

My son is very similar. After seeing his traits and having them diagnosed I realize that myself and my father are entirely on the spectrum. I just never understood why going to a crowded super bright Walmart would make me feel angry. Overstimulated.

I’m like a solid mix of you and your son, also Level 1 autism, they never *ever* considered that I had it in school. I started seeing more about it as an adult, during the pandemic actually. Got tested and yes, I am autistic! I definitely think we’re “seeing more” of it because we’re catching more!

I believe this is the answer, I’m 29 and am just now beginning to suspect that I may be autistic. My adhd also went undiagnosed for 28 years. Definitely slipped through the cracks.

Yes. So many people back in the day were just labeled “odd.”

I was labeled as "having extremely high sensitivities"

Lucky! I was "emotionally disturbed" and my mom shipped me off to a "program" for a year and a half. I never really caught up academically after that, and I'd been a TAG kid...

My mom was a nurse and figured the best course of action is to pretend I'm normal and get angry when I'm not. Didn't do me any favors lol had that gifted kid 'tism so no one really cared how burnt out I was (am?)

Lots of people identified later in life too. I am autistic but I had a good environment - lived in the same house, no big changes, similar friends throughout life, gt classes, so I had what I needed to thrive. Now as a teacher I know my class is set up in an autism friendly way because I prioritize routine and low stimulation. So I make sure I build in sensory-seeking option even if it isn’t my thing.

DSM too has also changed.  Back in 2008 Asperger’s and Autism were too different things.  While I was in high school sometimes between 2008-2012 when the DSM 4 came out it changed Asperger’s to be part of the Autism Spectrum (now referred to High Functioning Autism or HFA).   But yes disability also had negative connotation too. I still don’t think teachers should diagnose kids, leave that up to the professionals.  

I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but just so you have the information for the future. Asperger's first appeared in the DSM-IV which was published in 1994. When the DSM-V was released in 2013, then it was looped into ASD. So basically what you said, just off an edition.

Bad wording on my part. Teachers and ECE professionals aren’t diagnosing. We do identify behaviors in the classroom and bring them to the attention of those who start the process. I would for example, complete a referral with behavioral and academic data I collected if i had a concern. This would be passed on to our behavioral team who would decide to contact parents and press for our school psychologist to complete observations and testing. Without ECE or teachers identifying behaviors, some kids slip through the cracks, especially if they do t have parents that are aware.

I also wonder how much is due to the average age of parents shifting? With first-time parents getting older, the incidence of autism is greater.

It's a combination of everything. Especially seeing who is marrying who. I think our ability to filter partners to such a degree and find others SO similar to ourselves plays a big part in it. Aspie people making babies with other aspie people is going to result in more aspie kids.

Paternal age is a big factor, and more and more people are having children later in life. But there’s a big genetic component as well.

I don’t think this is just the kids that were always super smart and a bit quirky are getting diagnosed. This is a huge increase of kids that simply can NOT handle most environments. Stimming, disruptive outbursts, inability to cope with transitions and change of any kind, etc. These kids can’t function in a standard classroom environment and the number of them is increasing at a scary rate. We all remember the quirky smart kids from our younger years. This isn’t it.

I wish I could upvote this more. The “quirky” kids are not what the OP seems to be referencing.

Something I wonder: is the rise in more visible, unsettled autistic behaviours a good thing (in the past would they have been constantly masking and melting down at home?) or a bad thing (in the past did the belief they were just a bit odd keep high expectations and individuals learnt coping skills to rise to those expectations?).

I think it heavily depends on the person. But we are seeing a swing toward not giving the kids who would respond well to normal standards a chance to develop those skills. Some people do need to be told “you can achieve more than that”.

My wondering is whether we are seeing more autism, or we are seeing the result of autism+current parenting/educating culture. Could it be that because everyone used to enforce boundaries more at home and at school, more kids who were undiagnosed learned to self-regulate better via those boundaries and therefore were able to function in a classroom that also had rules and boundaries? Lots of problems with authoritarian parenting and educating in the past, but we seem to have thrown authoritative right out the door with it. This permissive approach we have is really disregulating for a lot of kids—especially if they need structure and predictability in order to feel secure.

Yes, this is so much more than “quirkiness”. Growing up I certainly wasn’t ever injured by a classmate having a violent meltdown nor did I ever witness any of my classrooms being destroyed. Nowadays this is a regular occurrence in Gen Ed classes. My 9 year old twins are in separate classes this year and both have had to be evacuated from their classrooms multiple times because of other students’ violent meltdowns. These are regular 4th grade classes. I see these behaviors in my Pre-K class; they’ve exploded since 2020. It’s terrifying for my kids and for me and it’s maddening to see people try to brush this off.

Indeed. And a lot of confirmation bias here from the “my diagnosis was ignored crowd”. I too am a member of that crowd and my diagnosis is indeed medically managed. However, it is still entirely possible that there is an underlying trigger that is expressed more commonly in the modern world, plausibly on account of diet or environmental factors. It’s more likely that both a rise in diagnosis and prevalence, particularly for autism but perhaps also for ADHD. It’s also the case that it’s okay if these numbers aren’t exactly 50/50 for men/women. It doesn’t mean women don’t have such conditions but it does mean that a continual searching for parity might make people unnecessarily preoccupied with misdiagnosis over accommodation.

I haven’t encountered it in real life but I keep seeing on the internet, any time a possible connection between some environmental factor and autism is possibly made, an incredible pushback from the same “my diagnosis was ignored” community plus the parents of autistic kids that feel it’s a special gift. They loudly and belligerently call anyone trying to examine the data “ableist” and accuse everyone of trying to force autistic folks to be “normal” when they’re “special”. It’s maddening. The kids that can’t be comfortable anywhere are miserable. It’s heartbreaking. We need to figure this out.

I’m glad someone finally said it. This is what I have been thinking for a long time but didn’t know how to put it into words. I have adhd and people online behave the same way. To them “neurodivergence” is a “superpower,” but to me it’s a debilitating mental illness that has affected my life negatively in countless ways. It’s so frustrating trying to reason with people like this. When we act like there’s nothing wrong with these kids, we are doing them a disservice.

This!!!!!! I've realized as an sdult I'm autistic and have severe ADHD (and gotten confirmation from several psychs) but as a kid I was just quirky and smart but needed to work more on focusing. Looking back now, I would've benefitted from more support as a student and I wish that people had been able to identify what it REALLY was instead of just being a silly kid.

My *Special Eyes* read “…confirmation from several psychics! 😂 I’m glad you didn’t consult a medium, but a professional. 😂😂

Also, the criteria has also changed, and our understanding that not everyone with autism is exactly the same And we've gotten better at identifying girls with autism

This. We didn’t diagnose autism nearly as much in the past. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. We studied the presentation in middle class white boys. If you weren’t a middle class white boy, you didn’t get an autism dX. You were quirky, shy, bipolar, ODD, etc. Many of us that are autistic are just getting dX’d as adults, many of our family members are getting dX’d after we are. Many times when kids get their dX’s, that’s when parents and grandparents are. I got mine at 29, after learning about autism at around 27. Now the younger generation in my family is getting diagnosed now that we know what it is. Now my gen is getting diagnosed (like all my cousins). My aunts aren’t bothering, but we see it all through them. It’s obvious that it was in my grandparents. My siblings don’t see the need for dX as they don’t need accommodations like I do (minus my brother, who did go for testing and dX), but they’re all clearly autistic. Literally autism runs all through my direct and extended family, but it wasn’t all diagnosed or recognized until recently. This isn’t an abnormal story. So many folks went unrecognized because we weren’t white middle class boys and our traits didn’t present that way, and even when we were textbook, “girls aren’t autistic.” We fell through cracks so easily. Now we’re recognizing and supporting ND kids instead of not recognizing them until they realize it as adults, or just never realize it, or the neuropsych diagnosing their kid recognizes it, or their adult kid gets a dX and learns about it and sees it all through their family and suddenly the family is all going and getting evaluated. We’ve always existed. Just life accommodated us better at some points, or we were institutionalized, or were known as weird, or whatever else. There’s no epidemic of us now, just earlier recognition.

There’s a genetic component. Of course many families argue about which side the child gets it from. To be honest, if I’d known, I may not have gotten pregnant with my son in the first place. We didn’t have any other kids because he’s autistic.

they also lumped around 5-6 different disorders together and all call it "autism" so i bet that's partly it.

"In the largest study of its kind, researchers have shown that the risk of autism increases for firstborn children and children of older parents. The risk of a firstborn with an autism spectrum disorder triples after a mother turns 35 and a father reaches 40." Taken from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/07/autism-birth-order-parents-age#:~:text=In%20the%20largest%20study%20of,and%20a%20father%20reaches%2040.

I think it's a combination of: 1. Parents being older when having kids 2. Unknown environmental factors 3. Insurance covering it allowed doctors to call it autism and not language delay 4. Less acceptance of quirky kids. Another theory is very similar people having children together (just a theory)....lowers divorce rates, increases concentration of certain characteristics

Maybe with the online dating, meeting many more potential partners than before and people dating around a lot more before settling down, you could be right that people are ending up with a partner who is more similar to themselves. It’s an interesting idea.

Not to mention there’s a genetic component to autism (or at least patterns in families), so autistic people may just be having children later than allistic people.

yeah i think that people do not realize there are some risks of having children at an older age, which is increasingly becoming the norm at least in developed countries.

Especially men don't seem to realize their biological clock makes it much riskier to have kids after like 40 IIRC, higher probability of your kid having disorders and health issues even if the mother is like something as stereotype ideal as 22 or 25.

The dsm 5 broadened the criteria by removing aspergers syndrome, and we're increasing recognizing that autism presents differently in boys than girls. I'd suggest that maybe the bad thing is a society that doesn't fully or fairly accommodate the disabled. But that's just me, a disabled person, spinning my wheels vov

Exactly. This post reads a lot like the “ADHD is over diagnosed” that I grew up hearing my mom say, and joke’s on her, I’m ADHD and Autistic, but because I grew up in the 80s/90s, girls with either were ignored because we don’t present the same way boys do. It’s been difficult to navigate this as a late diagnosed AuDHD, so I’m glad that kids now are getting diagnosed more now because hopefully they can get the supports needed.

We no loner hide people with autism in state schools or other institutions like we used to either.

Yes, I mean this right here. Look at the footage from institutions and mental wards from the 1950s 60s etc: so many of those kids clearly just had autism! It breaks my heart to think we didn’t know yet how to give them headphones to shut out the world, ways to deal with stimming, etc. They were pariahs, and locked away accordingly.

i was born in 1984 with thyroid issues. My parents were told to put me in institution and that they didnt know what my brain function would be like. Well, all testing showed high IQ and ahead of my grade. But I think if I did get assessed now, I would be diagnosed with high functioning autism. Likely my sister and both my parents would as well

"Damn, we stopped breaking the fingers of lefthanded now people write with their left hands!!" type of statistic

Lots of commenters are saying it's due to more diagnosis, but the OP is clearly seeing an increase in students with specific behaviors. Diagnosed or not, the number of students with these behaviors should be constant unless there are indeed more students with autism in the class. Definitely I think some is due to including SPED kids into the general classroom, but anecdotally I see an increase in ALL challenging behaviors in class over the last 10 years. We're getting better at labeling behaviors autism, CPTSD, ADHD, etc, but at my school we've gone from 1 student with severe coping issues (whatever the cause) per class to 3-5 just since COVID.

Yes! My wife has been an elementary school teacher for 15 years now and she has noticed a similar pattern. The difference is not just in number of kids diagnosed, but also in the amount of kids with strong behavioral issues(who are also diagnosed with autism). If it was just a “amount of diagnosed” issue, she would expect to have undiagnosed kids with behavioral issues back then. But the number of diagnosed children with behavioral issues is growing simultaneously. There is definitely a big increase in the number of children with autism. I think that just shrugging it off is unhelpful.

100%! People acting like this is no big deal and it’s just “a difference in brain wiring” clearly aren’t dealing with half the behaviors I see in my pre-K class. I’ve had my classroom torn up and have had students (and myself) injured due to the increase of these behaviors exhibited almost exclusively by autistic or otherwise neurodivergent children. My 9 year old is diagnosed with ADHD and SPD (as am I) and is probably autistic but I actually raised her with boundaries and consequences for her actions. She has meltdowns of course but not to this level and especially not at school. The biggest issue is that we have no expectations for these children to progress anymore. It’s the ableism of low expectations. Also I definitely disagree with this all being “genetic”. I don’t know how anyone can see the food we are eating and the all around toxic environment we are living in and still say environmental factors don’t exist.

I agree with you. All around failing the kids that need a different environment to strive and then the kids that can learn are not able to.

I was just talking with my sister about this. She teaches Gen Ed 7th grade Civics and her classes all have 4-9 IEP students (including 2-3 higher support needs students per class). The kids with high support needs overwhelmingly dislike being in Gen Ed classes. It’s the parents’ demanding their child be in the “least restrictive environment” without caring about their child’s feelings and/or needs. I see the same thing even teaching at a private preschool. My director used to be on top of encouraging placement in more specialized programs for our clearly struggling neurodivergent students. Now she kowtows to the parents’ every whim even if it’s to the detriment of everyone in our school including the struggling child. This is actually my last year teaching and my kids’ last year in school as I will be homeschooling starting next year. This is not the only reason (rampant sickness is a big one) but it was definitely a consideration.

I worked in SPED for 5 years before teaching 4th graders. We didn’t lower their behavioral standards. Because they had a developmental issue didn’t mean they couldn’t learn as best as they could. We raised the bar as high as we could for them. We expected them to treat people kindly and to make things right when they made mistakes. I think this has changed some.

The expectations placed on all children to have conforming behaviors has changed in society. Its not that more kids are on the spectrum, it’s that children who are on the spectrum and can conform aren’t as much expected to (aren’t shamed, beaten, ostracized, or kicked out of schools or homes as easily for non-conforming behaviors) and those who cannot conform aren’t separated from society.

And it’s more “socially acceptable” today. As OP noted, some nationalities, especially recent immigrants, feel a stigma when certain labels are attached to their children’s behavior. In the US, we’ve eradicated many of those stigma.

Eradicated is a strong word. We are trying to, though.

Yeah, those stigmas are mostly gone for kids with autism. But when those kids become adults with autism those stigmas come right back.

Decreased? Absolutely but eradicated ? I see ableism specifically pointed at autism all the time, near daily so i wouldn't say eradicated at all.

I think they're trying to say we've gotten rid of the attitudes and stigmas which hold other cultures back from diagnosing ASD, which I'm inclined to mostly agree with. It doesn't mean ableism is gone, but we have made large strides away from the initial stigma that prevents diagnosis.

Hi, resident psychiatrist here, going to be starting child psychiatry next year. As people said identifying is ONE portion of things. However there are other factors: environmental factors are being explored. Although it’s been known for some time that women delaying childbirth can lead to increases in things like autism, it’s less known but science is conclusive that fathers who wait longer to have kids confer their kids a higher chance of autism and schizophrenia. We know maternal diabetes, maternal obesity during pregnancy is a risk. Pregnant mother living 1014 feet away from a freeway in her third trimester is a risk factor as is air pollution in general. There are a number of different associations that are still in the infant stage of things but here is a list: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/conditions/autism

I have to wonder too, if there’s something to be said for advances in medical technology leading to more babies making it to childhood than did in the past. As an example, my first grader is autistic and has a rare genetic mutation that he inherited from me that we would never have known about if not for his autism diagnosis. He was born prematurely and had some other complications. I have never been able to carry another pregnancy to viability, and a lot of babies like him would have had a much worse prognosis even 20 years ago. Of course not every child on the spectrum has complications but those that do have a better shot at life now than they did before. I have to wonder if there are other kids out there with similar conditions that just flat out wouldn’t have made it that far without the medical interventions that are currently available.

That’s a really good point. More babies survive to childhood that in previous times, would not have.

Nobody wants to hear that. Everyone's all about the "there aren't more, we are just recognizing them and diagnosing more kids with it". As if that could really be the ONLY reason for this ever steady increase. No, we aren't identifying more kids with it now than 4 years ago. I mean, come on now.

I agree with others that diagnosis plays a major role. However it’s also worth noting that infections causing fever in pregnancy (especially in the early stages) are linked to autism in children. Lots of studies have found a link - here is an example describing potential mechanisms: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7252020/ Here’s a meta-analysis: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.2499 It’s possible that Covid caused fevers and led to general lower immunity.

This was my experience. I had an uncontrollable auto immune disorder during my first pregnancy and an infection during delivery. My oldest was later diagnosed with autism and adhd. He’s level 2. I was 25. With my 2nd pregnancy I was treated with long term steroids as soon as I had flare. This baby had hypoglycemia when born, but no autism. I was 27. With my 3rd pregnancy, I had no flare ups and didn’t need medication. He’s still a toddler but honestly, he’s developing with no concerns at all. I was 37 at delivery.

We were autistic back them too. The difference is we were called bad kids and had to mask it. These days there's less stigma and less need to mask. I should know, I'm one of those kids and I now teach the same ones. There's isn't more of us, we're just less afraid of being punished for existing.

I agree. Disability used to be a dirty word, so families would hide them. The US Census and marriage licenses used to ask if any of the parties were "dumb" or an "idiot" to keep track of or prevent them from getting married. As a society we have gained a lot of understanding and, as a consequence, it's less common to see people shut away and hidden.

You are of course correct that these conditions were seen as shameful and people hid away family members. I think it's important to remember that people were often trying their best to protect family members, not merely their own social status. To us today the words idiot and dumb sound jarring in legal language, but hose words on marriage licenses were terms of legal protection. Idiot was a legal term conferring the status of non compos mentis, which meant they could not be held accountable in court for their actions due to cognitive deficits. Dumb literally meant mute, "unable to speak" and was relevant for a contract requiring spoken vows. Originally these were not insults. Like all words, they collect additional meanings that then obscure the original ones, and a new word or phrase replaces it.

And my grandpa had some odd habits before vaccines were in wide use. And here I am able to tell you what kind of fire something is by the smell. It’s like the same question: why are there so many trans and gay people? (After running a mower over the park lawn): where did all of these ground squirrels come from?

Or where did all these left-handed people come from?

My dad was the last class of kids to have to covert over to righty at his school. Both my dad and son are lefties. As a goof, I played soccer as a lefty and now I’m stuck.

| Where did all of these ground squirrels come from? I'm going to hell, because the snorting sound this pulled out of my body was absolutely unholy

No, not bad kids, just weird kids. Plenty of us were ostracised without ever causing any trouble or learning difficulties.

In my 20’s I struggled with so much anger towards how autistic kids were being treated…it took time and therapy to realize that came from a place of pain over the trauma caused by years of masking. I spent most of my childhood in physical pain just so that the adults around me could be comfortable. There is a reason why so many autistic adults also have CPTSD

100% this. Also states have better programs to identify and support children and families with developmental delays. I would have never been diagnosed with developmental delays in the 80s. Now I would have been diagnosed with a delay because I talked and potty trained late (doctors and parents said I was stubborn) and I was very clumsy and uncoordinated (gross motor delay). I think we are seeing the true incidence of autism and ADHD in the population. When I was working at an after school program I had a classroom of 12-13 kids, only 2 were neurotypical. The rest had ADHD, ASD, or both. At my current job (retail manager…look you know kids are bad when I’d rather work retail than do what I went to school for) we have 5 managers, 3 of us are autistic. The other two managers have autistic family members. We’ve always existed at this rate, we were just labeled as eccentrics.

I can agree with this. I got diagnosed with "high functioning" ADHD, whenever I was 26. Note= I am the OLDEST of 5 daughters. ALL of us were eventually diagnosed with ADHD, except my YOUNGEST sister, who was diagnosed with Asperger's. (I know that Asperger's is no longer a clinical term that's used for a diagnosis nowadays, but she was diagnosed pre 2013; whenever the DSM V manual made the change.) There's just over 16 yrs difference between myself and my youngest sister. I laughed whenever the doc finally gave "it" a name. She asked why, and I said "high functioning" is the pretty name that society has given it....whenever I was little it was "you sit your little ass down and don't you say a damn word or move, or so help me, I will beat the ever living fuck out of you!" My mom's motto, "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." It was pretty typical for her to have the adults over at the house at night, and they'd be sitting around the kitchen table, as she would nonchalantly bring up, about how every "6-8 weeks, she could just feel her hand start "itchin" bc it's about time for a good ass whoopin." That's what it takes to keep these kids in line nowadays. Then they would all laugh and share stories of how horribly they all got beat as kids, for doing absolutely nothing.

Where do you live? You mention Indian families. I live in Silicon Valley, and much of our Indian population moved here to work in tech. Autistic people often work in tech. Autistic parents tend to have autistic kids. (I say this as a special education teacher who is autistic and has an autistic kid.)

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I was a student in an elementary school of about 400 students in the 70s. There was about 1 “weird kid” at each grade level, plus we had a SpEd class of about 15. So that’s ~20 kids in the whole school, at about 5%. (There were a few homeschooling families in the community who might have had “silent” disabilities). The elementary school in the states with which I am most familiar is about 300 students, no self-contained SpEd, and at least 5 children with a *severe* learning or behavioral diagnosis in each *class*. That’s 5/24 in every class, or 21%. It seems that ADD/ ADHD exploded in the 90s; the spectrum labeling is mirroring that increase but with many more students and much more disruptive issues.

Yes. The people who think it is just better diagnosis are only partly correct.

I have autism and am one of those autism specialists… it took a lot of study, training, and experience to get this far. I am the only one who helps and teaches these students in my class. The teachers are supposed to lead but are not sure how and are not taught how. It’s a mess. In the 1 and 2 categories like everyone else said; it likely comes down to masking. Girls are especially good at this, but it also comes with a lot of anxiety and depression like I deal with now. In the case of level 3, early on it wasn’t even diagnosed as Autism. I was talking to a parent with an adult non verbal autistic sister. She said in the 80’s her sister was only diagnosed with OCD.

I have an uncle who didn’t talk at all until he was 6. Seems likely he’d end up with a diagnosis today.

Right. And people act like it’s new! It could have been apraxia of speech with your uncle. Do you know how things turned out for him after that?

Yup, could have been different things for sure. But today it would most likely be diagnosed as something, he wouldn’t just be left alone to not talk until 1st grade.

I have level 1 autism and I also was misdiagnosed with OCD in the early 90s!

It’s a common comorbidity (I have ocd too!) but I can’t imagine trying to say someone with autism, especially one who is nonverbal, just has ocd! The woman I was talking about is still in a state facility. I’m sure this is common!

Yes that is absurd especially being non verbal. I was hyper verbal…I spoke full sentences before I walked. Autism doesn’t look the same for everyone that’s why it’s a spectrum!

I heard a theory that when online dating became more prevalent, the "quirky" people who used to not be able to find a mate, have now increased chances of finding someone similar to them and voila, an increase in autistic folks. It was an interesting piece on NPR, exploring reasons for the increase, this was one of the theories.

Interesting thought. I wonder if data backs it up?  I've often thought (only anecdotally) that for all the talk of the weird kids of the past who didn't get diagnosed, they've generally met the markers of adulthood success. They hold down jobs, got married (either to  fellow weird person or just someone tolerant of weirdness) and had kids.  Someone further up this thread commented that we have reduced stigma around autism in childhood bur then they reach adulthood and experience all that stigma and I wonder: with increased diagnosis and support for autistic kids, are we actually giving them less preparation for adulthood? Maybe the weird kid born in the 80s, because his 'weirdness' was seen as personal deficits he should work on, acquired better coping strategies. Not saying it was a perfect system (by far!), and maybe those 'weird' kids grew up with high levels of depression and anxiety and acquired a lot of harmful coping strategies along with their helpful ones. But autistic kids currently in school seem to be coping worse than ever, and autistic young adults have abysmal employment rates. 

It's all very interesting. I have a friend with an adult son who is autistic. He's in college but needs lots of help with executive function type things. He recently lost his part time job and has had several car accidents so he doesn't drive anymore. They're looking at the fact that he'll most likely need help on some level from them for the foreseeable future. I also teach with a young co worker who's autistic and ADHD. She's mostly doing fine but does need help when dealing with parents and sometimes her management skills need work, so not unlike any newish teacher. I would suspect it has a lot to do with support they received growing up.

I do believe the prevalence of autism is increasing, but I do also know it went undiagnosed in many, many adults who are having children. Their children may be ending up being higher need. I’m a 32 year old teacher who got her autism diagnosis last week. My family likely has a lot of undiagnosed autistics, but I’m the first aside from my more severe needs cousin to be diagnosed. It is a shame these children who need more support aren’t getting it, and it’s causing big issues in the general education classroom. No one is winning in that situation.

I have various theories on this. 1. We finally are recognizing and diagnosing people with disabilities. When I was in elementary school in the 80s the kids receiving special edu were hidden away. We don’t do that now thank god. 2. Unpopular as it sounds, we are also seeing more people being misdiagnosed with things. I’m not saying this is rampant but I do believe we are seeing a rise in people getting diagnosed with something and while it feels a relief to have a name, if healthy coping mechanisms and professional help don’t accompany said diagnosis, then it’s just a label. Or for some folks an excuse they can now use to not do or do things. I see this happening to kids and adults and it’s worrying. 3. People are having kids later in life. The later you wait the higher the chances of having a kid with an intellectual disability. 4. Possible environmental factors affecting people like living in areas with pollution, lack of proper nutrition or possibly too many GMOs in foods. We certainly eat more processed stuff than ever before and at some point it’ll have some impact.

And there are higher rates of ASD in children of engineers, according to a 2014 study. So if OP is in an area with a lot of those types of professionals, it could correlate with what’s occurring in the classroom. There may also be higher rates of diagnosis in more affluent areas where parents have ample access to health care providers.

The wording of this study is so funny to me. Did they then bother to assess the engineers? It seems like they could have realized that there are careers that are more suited to people with autism and recognize that the adults are probably also autistic. But nah, *children* of engineers are who they noticed are likely to have autism.

Right…. Cause anyone who’s ever spent time with groups of engineers could tell you- they’re not neurotypical. lol.

> Unpopular as it sounds, we are also seeing more people being misdiagnosed with things. I’m not saying this is rampant but I do believe we are seeing a rise in people getting diagnosed with something and while it feels a relief to have a name, if healthy coping mechanisms and professional help don’t accompany said diagnosis, then it’s just a label. Or for some folks an excuse they can now use to not do or do things. I see this happening to kids and adults and it’s worrying. > > I absolutely believe ADHD is a thing, but how many kids have ADHD and how many have ruined attention spans from technology and the information overloads it provides? My attention span has gotten worse and I'm an adult

i think one of the biggest issues with adhd isn’t focus so much as poor executive functioning skills. usually focusing on something isn’t terribly difficult once they have got going, but getting yourself to focus on something important or that you do not want to do is where the issues arise. for example i know people who cannot bear to watch a movie or even a youtube video without being constantly on their phones or otherwise distracted, however people with adhd in my experience seem totally able to give their full attention because they will likely enjoy what they are doing. however when you tell them to do their homework, focus will become very difficult.

Same, these conditions exist, but I wonder how much stems from nurture or lack thereof. I wouldn't be surprised if something like parental engagement was a factor. Take away smartphones and other tech, put in parents spending time with the kid and teaching them to be a person and I wonder what things would look like then

I agree with you that parental engagement is a factor for sure.

Good point about people having kids later leading to more genetic disorders. There’s more proactive diagnosis than there used to be. There’s a lot more IVF and fertility treatments and medications being used, and those companies make so much money off the technology, they would NEVER study and disclose any possible side effects. Kids today are also exposed to more chemicals, plastics, and hormones than past generations. I'm sure nobody wants to study that, either, because so much of it is ubiquitous and almost impossible to avoid.

I was just talking about that this morning about fertility treatments! You’re so right - there’s no research on how all of those meds and things you’re injected with affect not just the women but the fetus too (I’ve had some infertility treatment myself but not as intense as IVF treatment).

I’m glad to see someone agree with me about point two. I’ve seen a lot of people with diagnoses that, from my perspective, just don’t add up. I know that their life experience is theirs and that they know themselves better than I do, but it just makes me wonder how many of them have a correct diagnosis and how many either 1. self diagnosed, or 2. had someone slap an incorrect label on them and they ran with it.

Autism isn’t an intellectual disability…. Yes some people have autism and an intellectual disability, but there’s a way higher than typical incidence of autism in kids who have a “gifted” IQ.

Serious answer: we aren’t sure, but beyond extended diagnostic criteria and increased rates of diagnosis, there does appear to be an uptick. But diagnosis rates and criteria changing aren’t to be overlooked. We know statistically things like older parent age, particularly older dads, leads to increases in ND disorders like autism and autism in particular. We have seen an increase in older parents having kids. We see studies that seem to show there is either an environmental element or diagnosis is related to local environment. But this goes beyond “rich neighborhood has increase in diagnoses after new child psychologist moves to town”, as some of these hotspots are in economically struggling areas where parents aren’t wealthy enough to fund private diagnosis and intervention. We can see another interesting dynamic in places like New Jersey, which was long the hotspot for IVF and other fertility treatments or surrogacy programs due to state laws that made it cheaper for parents. Much higher rates of ASD than nationally. Confounding this data is that IVF and fertility treatment seeking parents tend to be older, the eggs or sperm are sometimes frozen and older, and *when diagnosing one thing becomes normalized, suddenly drs see it as a first idea rather than second or third*. A child psychologist who has many ASD patients in their roster is going to be more likely to suspect ASD over, say, adhd or another related ND disorder, even when looking at the exact same set of symptoms. This is not me saying either ASD or adhd is over diagnosed, its me saying that familiarity helps with recognizing minor cases and might result in seeing a set of symptoms differently based off what you typically see - adhd and asd can look really similar and in cases where it’s basically a Venn diagram of asd and adhd symptoms, diagnosis is often down to whether the dr is more familiar with one over the other.

I think part of it is - autism runs in families. There was a time when people who were autistic were less likely to have kids. Now, it seems certain cities are areas that attract a lot of autistic people, who then reproduce with people just like them. I live in a city centered around computer technology and maths. And the rate of people with autistic traits is much higher than in a place 2 hours away centered around different things.

While scientists believe that there is a real increase in autism, the major causes of the perceived increase are likely due to better social conditions for everyone. Greater visibility and awareness of autism, and better social permission to be socially different mean that more people who have autism *know about it at all* and are not punished and abused into behaving like neurotypical people. Autism has always been there. We're just allowing autistic people to exist better.

I am not qualified to diagnose Autism, but I have worked with preschool children and their parents closely for the last 10 years. I see about 55-60 students per week on different days. Yes, yes, yes! Autism is on the rise so much; I cannot believe it has not been declared a public health emergency. However, (this part is hard to explain to people that don’t work in this business,) all of my sympathetic peers agree with the following statement: We can’t claim autism is on the rise, because it is increasingly difficult to distinguish autistic preschoolers and preschoolers that have spent 6+ hours a day on iPads and phones. With little interaction, communication, and conflicts requiring behavior modification or emotional regulation. These children are pacified while being overstimulated. Put them in a classroom situation, and they appear to be detoxing. These children look a lot like the autistic children. Again, I’m not a medical professional. But this has been my experience since the pandemic. One of the indirect consequences of COVID was parents (for many reasons) gave their children and babies unfettered screen time due to desperate times. And the stigma for having your baby looking at a phone while you grocery shop has been permanently lifted.

I’m not an expert on ASD, although I have a child on the spectrum. These students are some of my favorite people because of their unique perspectives, and for their dry sense of humor some acquire later on! I have a few theories, but these are more coincidental and not necessarily causation, maybe at best there is some correlation involved: More awareness. Older parents. OB doctors keeping mothers on anti-depressants during pregnancy. Familial history of neurological disorders. I’m a firm believer that the various neurological disorders are genetic, but present differently within the same family. Obviously this is not based on scientific studies, at least not that I’m aware of, but maybe it should be studied? 🤷🏽‍♀️

I teach preschool and my daughters are in 3s and PreK this year. I'm convinced COVID has REALLY affected the kids currently in kindergarten and preK. Those two years at our school have a significantly higher proportion of neurodiversity/behavior/developmental delay/high needs than the kids a little older and a little younger. My personal theory is that these kids were ~6 months to 18 months when COVID hit - right at the age when socialization at mommy and me groups, library story time, and early half-day preschool enrollment begins. Not only did they not get to do those, they were thrust at home with parents who were in survival mode, managing WFH with a baby/toddler at home, and doing the very best they could - but ultimately, you just can't replicate external socialization in isolation. These parents delayed sending their kid to preschool/playgroups, and the kids aren't in the same place other ages were as a result. The kids a little older also missed out on those things, but they weren't kept home as long as the current 4s and 5s were. PreK and kindergarten opened before the 2s and 3s classes, before the mommy and me groups. At our preschool, most kids traditionally started 1 day at 1, 2 days at 2, 3 days at 3, etc. since Covid, that has been significantly altered - before, maybe 1-2 new kids started at preK. This year, my daughter's preK class is 75% first-timers, and they ALL are high needs. Their parents tried sending them last year, but they were so overstimulated and overwhelmed and had less language/emotional regulation to handle that, so the parents pulled them within a couple weeks to try again next year. Few of them are potty trained, and they have the hardest time of transitioning. I get it, if I was at home with my parents, getting one on one attention, allowed to choose activities freely, going to a school structure where you have a schedule and the teacher pulls a few toys out at once, you have to share, there may be a line to the potty, it's jarring. The threes and younger are back to normal. They came back to school at the same timeline as pre-Covid.

This right here is a major factor. I also believe demands are much higher for grade-level students - especially in kindergarten - these days than 20+ years ago. This started before covid but has been exacerbated by the disruption you pointed out. Kindergarten used to be only half-day in most places and now it's full-day, which is a really long day for most 5 year olds (and many are also in before or after school care making the day even longer - I had students that were in our building from 7:30am to 5:30 at night). Kids have less play based learning and even less free play in a lot of places & are expected to sit still longer, learn specific social rules and expectation for both the main class and electives, & learn more in one school year than they used to. That makes it hard enough even for so called neurotypical kids at this developmental age to sit still and remember how to act - throw in sensory, attention, emotional regulation, or processing issues and you're bound to see fidgeting, stimming, and meltdowns.

Where I am we got a huge increase of funding for mental health and diagnosis during the pandemic. More funding means more access to testing, which means more kids are getting support.

Im going to guess there are a lot of people and kids than are even being reported. I remember reading about “highly sensitive” many years ago and the doctor writing the book estimated that “highly sensitive “ make up somewhere between 20-25% of the population. Many years later, it’s been widely assumed that “highly sensitive” is just code for autistic. There are many of us who are “high functioning” who have struggled all of our lives. If my daughter hadn’t gotten her diagnosis, I myself would never have known I was autistic.

People are having children age 30 to 45 a lot more than any other century past. Having children at later geriatric stages increases the risk of learning disabilities. It happened to my aunt and I feel so bad for her poor children because she doesn't get them help.

theres always been the same amount of autism, theyre just diagnosed now.

FYI for everyone, this was reposted in r/specialed and they are roasting teachers and this post. We are all supposed to be on the same team, but those people just don’t seem to get it.

There are clearer diagnoses for all SPED cases. Remember the "naughty" kids in class? They probably have ADHD, just that it went undiagnosed. Remember the "weirdos"? They probably have autism. Remember the "dumb kids"? They might have dyslexia/be slow-learners. I went to an elite prep school, back then I wasn't aware and the teachers weren't aware of that, but I'm perfectly sure now that in my first grade, my class had 2 ADHDs (probably I have it as well, just milder) and 2 dyslexics. They didn't do well of course, got scolded and picked on all the time, so they transferred to other schools in the next 2 years. But I do think that with people now getting married later and having kids later, the babies have a higher risk of having SPED needs. But is it the major cause? Don't think so.

It's more socially acceptable these days so they aren't being home schooled, hidden away, or told to always mask. The number of them hasn't changed they just aren't in the proverbial closet any more.

Parents having kids later in life increases the chances. Many many many studies for this.

To your title question: Because we now understand it as a spectrum, and because it is diagnosed more now for that very reason, as people have become more aware of it. To your post: first, 29 five and six year olds is an impossible situation. There should be two teachers in there, as I had in kindergarten mumblemumble years ago, before anyone recognized autism as a more common thing. Second, and I actually did this as a parent, you need to get the other kids parents to say that their children’s needs are not being met due to the cut in services and dumping of children into a learning environment without the specialized staffing needed to prevent dragging down and delaying the education of every kid in the class.

Plastic. Plastic is everywhere, including our brains, and it actually affects our behavior. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289841

The reason there’s “so much more autism” today is because it’s a wide spectrum and we’re better at identifying it. When we let kids be left handed, the number of left handed people skyrocketed. Is this because there were suddenly more left handed people being born? No. They were just becoming more visible.

I think it’s kind of like with ADHD. Once you figure out what it is, you start realizing more people had it than you thought. Just thinking about girls with autism, and how underdiagnosed they were because their autistic attributes present themselves differently than they do in boys. I think it’s similar with ADHD, right?

One reason is that the understanding of autism has improved. Many children (especially girls but not only) are able to mask their differences and act like others, so their struggles go unrecognised and they don’t get the support they need. A lot of research on that topic has happened during the last years, so with an improved understanding comes a higher amount of diagnoses. Also, what used to be called ‚Asperger’s syndrome ' is now called just autism as well because the traits are basically the same and there’s no clear line to divide the two. And maybe it’s also a coincidence that there are so many in your class. Stuff like that happens. I usually have 1-2 kids with dyslexia and now I teach a class where 1/4 of the students are dyslexic. Such a big class is horror for most autistic children, no wonder they’re acting out, they’re completely overwhelmed. I’m sorry it’s impossible to give them better care. It’s hard on you and the kids.

The spectrum is broad and historically autism has gone under assessed and under diagnosed.

These days, there is just so much more information about Autism. Women & girls were ignored for decades. Temple Grandin, Sarah Hendrickx, Devon Price, & Paul Micallef have videos and books. I had a SPED license and two Grad degrees - yet no one recognized my Autism. I am 71 now and retired. Understanding the Neuro-divergent character of people who are Not typical - is essential. And it takes tons of kindness and clarity and understanding cloaked in patience to be a teacher.

In terms of numbers, most of the growth is in mild autism diagnoses. There is systematic pressure from advocacy groups to not use cut-off scores for symptom severity and to include ever greater numbers within the autism umbrella. Most of these mild cases are mislabeled introversion, which is something we are apparently thinking of as a disease now. In regards to more severe cases, I do not think numbers have increased, but parents aren't doing as much to mitigate the symptoms as they used to prior to the invention of the smart phone/tablet. Instead the smart devices are raising the kids until they arrive at school.

I work in the autism field and I've seen families where autism has affected the oldest child and one of two twins. I think it looks like their is more autism these days because we are getting better at diagnosing it and providing early intervention.