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

In addition to increased awareness, is the increased labelling and assignment of "developmental disorders". "Slow" children gets labelled something. There must be a reason why they are "slow".

The IQ spectrum follows a basically Gaussian curve. There is going to be the bottom 10% with intellectual impairment. In the past they are just called "stupid". Now that is not acceptable and new labels need to be found and used. Nobody exist in the B10 anymore. They are somewhere higher if not for a developmental disorder.