I don't really have the stats in Msia, just a discussion with you guys.

I don't know if you all feel the same way, but unlike my youth days I didn't meet a lot of people having autism issue until present day. Some may say it was due to awareness and education from internet and social media to help us know how an autistic person is like.

However, thinking back, I didn't really meet a lot of people who have autism.

But these days it appears to be more prevalent than before. I mean autistic kids, I love them, they are nice and cute, sometimes I volunteer to help out with the kids.

On the other hand, I felt a sense of concern because I notice how these kids are going to fit in the working life. I do try my best to help but I think today there are more and more of kids being diagnosed with autism than before.

For eg, in my office alone, I have a staff with 8 kids, 2 of his kids are autistic, another colleague from another dept he has 3 kids, 1 of his kid is autistic and then another colleague at another department, she has 3 kids, third one is autistic (non audible), then another colleague has 3 kids, 3rd one also autistic (non audible).

I went to a class reunion, we agreed to set up a few tables, 3 for adults and 2 for kids. during the party, the adults will rotate to the kids table to help take care of the kids, I found out of the 2 tables sitting, 2 kids are autistic.

Then 7 years ago, I befriended a friend, in the course of my volunteer work, who is also autistic, he is about 24yo. He can speak, a very nice guy, he can speak, except he is very naive...sometimes I am afraid that he may kena scam, he so easily trust people. And when he speaks he keeps repeating stuff, I am ok with that. Fortunately there is a co, that is helpful and hired him to do simple work.

So it all boils down to this: WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY?

Is it because of more awareness level, that more people are diagnosed with autism than 15 years ago?
Or is it because of pollution, the processed food we eat, microplastic issue absorb by the human body, the environment that is causing more autism cases? Of course to date scientist is unable to proof this, but its very concerning that more cases are out today.

I known some close friends who are spending 3k per month on special education for their kids, its become a significant financial spending for families.

There is no cure, there is no way one can detect autism in the womb. Some only find out when they notice the kid is not talking up to 2-3yo, depending on the severity of the autism spectrum.

This post has been edited by hoonanoo: Oct 24 2024, 09:30 AM

Well, it’s not quite true that autism cannot be detected early. Many can be detected early. The question is what are you going to do about it when there’s abortion is not allowed?

This is a lifestyle problem.it starts with men having significantly less sperm than the 90s or earlier. Could be stress at work. Could be bad habit of insufficient sleep. Could be the food. Could be the rise of obesity. So quality of sperm has also dropped. I do not have statistics for female egg count and quality but my guess is that it’s the same drop in quantity and quality. That’s why the rise in IVF, infertility and autistic kids.

Another root cause is because cost of living is so high, people are delaying marriage and delaying having a child. So the age of giving birth also increased. Both are statistically proven in Malaysia. Including rise of autistic children in Malaysia. No proof but a clear correlation in data. Since woman release a fixed number of eggs in their lifetime, the later they conceive, the poorer the grade. But most will find out from fertility clinics is that both are the reason or no reason can be found because it’s rarely a clear reason which person is the cause of fertility.

Like you said, it takes extreme patience and cost to raise an autistic child. I think most parents will want to make sure their kids can take care of THEMSELVES when the parents are no longer around hence the effort to nurture them even at higher cost. More people are buying insurance for this when pregrant. I also foresee most couples will opt for IVF even when they are perfectly fine to avoid autistic kids especially when IVF cost has steadily come down and more accessible. Obviously more have opt not to have kids altogether

This post has been edited by PS8805: Oct 24 2024, 09:50 AM

There are cases where young parents also get autistic child, late marriage is not the main factor.

i got 1 non-verbal seizure prone autistic brother. he's on his late 20s.

most likely im going to take care of him till the day i die or vice versa.

its pointless for me to think about how this happened.

but i think the rise of internet plays a large part regarding the awareness.

the advancement of medical science is increasing the life expectancy of population.

as such, population increase. with more people around, maybe the risk of mutation increase?

i dont know, i dont have energy to care.

im just focusing on giving the best life to my younger brother.

current or future government better not pulling the subsidy of the meds.

ill burn the world if i have to.

This post has been edited by h0riz0nLine: Oct 24 2024, 10:05 AM

If environmental causes like pollutions and toxins caused more present day autisms.. then there would have been even more autistics cases 20 years ago since back in the 1960s and 1970s .... cigarette smoking were rampant and motor vehicles were less regulated to conform to emission standards.

This post has been edited by alanyuppie: Oct 24 2024, 10:11 AM

I mean when fetus in the womb.

Toddler, you may be able to notice some signs, but confirmation is also difficult unless you do a MRI brain scan.

I've been told in hindsight autism was more prevalent back in the day

Just that it was not recognised as such

And many of them die

I wonder if got stats in Msia.

I being trying to find.

More awareness now that tik-tokers and youtubers sharing the insights and signs of Autism
There are also high functioning ppl that do not usually exhibit autism. Some diagnosed as an adult.

In Malaysia, any signs of out of norm are still being considered crazy/has depression/cacat especially adults.

Autism is a spectrum. Many is high functioning and do not be surprised famous scientists are autistic as well

So pursuits what suit best for individual instead of focus on what he do not hv

Pretty sure you've mixed up autism with Down Syndrome.

It's now called ASD....autism spectrum disorder. As in any spectrum, you can have very mild cases (used to be called Asperger's) to the full blown autistic.

Is it more common? Probably no. Increased awareness makes it seem so.

Plus in the past, families just hide them at home.

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 24 2024, 11:18 AM

I once send my kid to a music class for kids.

The teacher would read a nursery story then play music and children would animate and dance along. I saw most of the kids participate except for one kid.

he seemingly too focus or interested in a ball, he keeps playing with the ball, that the mother had to bring along to class, but he paid no attention to the teacher and rest of the kids and he does not participate at all.

The mother is with him and she takes care of him while at class. i notice she spends special attention to him while the rest of the parents just go to the back of the class and sit on the chairs there either playing with their hp or watching the kids performing in the music class.

He looks perfectly normal, and I am glad he could speak but I just wondering why he is always focused on that ball and throughout the whole 1 hour class, he didn't participate at all. The music and the playing was so inticing that the rest of the kids were happy to play except him.

I mean you could tell if some kids are anti social and naughty wanna do something else, but for his case, you could see it wasn't about lack of interest or naughty, you could sense he just don't want to take notice of the class and just want to be in his own bubble. I could be wrong but its just something I noticed.

Although I didn't want to speculate but my heart was thinking that the kid was exhibiting some signs (maybe I am wrong I dunno). I hope he would do well in his future.

This post has been edited by hoonanoo: Oct 24 2024, 11:25 AM

I understand there are those mild cases.

In fact a lot of mild case people live normal lives and go on to have successful life. For Eg Mark Zuckerberg, he was diagnosed with Aspergers.

But I am talking about those more severe cases like in affects child development very severely, like when the child reaches 3yo to 5yo still unable to talk despite intervention. Or they don't focus on you while you are making funny faces when they are in their toddler stage.

I am noticing more of these cases than in the past.

You are a good man, I can see from your writings. I pray that you and your family members as well as your brother will continue to receive all the support.

I have a 65 year old friend who is a retired teacher. She did not marry as she is committed to take care of her 55yo sister who appears to be autistic, she is very prone with her outburst due to her depression issues. Her sister regularly sends her to the psychiatrist to take her meds.

I could be wrong, but if we were able to find the reason, maybe it would help us to pinpoint how to best improve the lives of people who has severe autism.

Can only compare then & now directly if detection criteria & frequency is the same, but it's not.
Chances are what's considered clinically autistic today was just 'weird' back then.

in the past, we call those child hyperactive, naughty, parent did not teach manners to them.

so it's most probably relates more to awareness.

Last time don't have mobile phone and wifi

Close friends who got married total up got 6 of us. 3 of them got autistic kids. Incident rate 50%. It's crazy

I think back then the amount of autistic also same. Just they wont be so severe because lack of screen time. And got huge amount of human interaction to force the conformity. Imagine siblings banyak, out of 4 ekor only 1 autistic. The other 3 will have some way to pressure the autistic one to be more normal.

From what i observe. those non functional autism is solely due to lack of guide from the surrounding peers. Those with parents heavily involved and well informed in regards to autism, those who do early intervention from age 2 onwards have much better outcome than those that sit back and pray the kids are just in the phase, they WANT to believe they can outgrow the autism. End up by age 7 only they start to accept their kids are autistics.

I don't think autism is caused by behaviour issues or lack of attention/guidance from parents.

Last time in my school, I had friends who were 100% neglected by their parents, just send to school, feed and cloth them, that's all.

but still their minds can learn.

I believe autism is caused by children brain not growing to normal, its very subtle, can't be seen. MRI can't detect in baby, toddlers until later on. Very subtle changes in the slow growth of certain parts in an autistic child, those severe non verbal cases.