Writers Notebook :: Autism

Works Cited http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_whatis_factsstats http://autism.emedtv.com/autism/autism-statistics.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism http://www.medicinenet.com/autism/article.htm http://autism.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/treatmentshub.htm Writers Notebook Entry #1 For my first entry I searched for common statistics that go along with the topic of the disease of autism in the United States. For starters the cost of autism treatment is $60 billion annually, with 60% of the costs being towards adults. In comparison, only one percent of adults in the United Kingdom have this. In the next ten years the cost will skyrocket to $200- $400 billion. The cost to this lifelong needed care can be reduced by 2/3 with an early diagnosis and intervention. We can estimate that if 4 million children are born in the United States every year, approximately 24,000 of these children will eventually be diagnosed with autism. If the annual growth rate was fairly consistent over the last two decades then it can be imagined that 500,000 Americans younger than age 21 have autism spectrum. There is a 10-17% annual growth of the disorder. 1% of the population of children in America aged between three and seventeen have the disorder. One to 1.5 million Americans are living with the disease of autism spectrum disorder. It is estimated to be seen in one out of 91 births and averaged that two to six out over every 1,000 children will be affected with autism. Males are four times more likely to develop this disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is the fastest growing developmental disability with a 1,148% growth rate. There was a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comparing autism with mental retardation and cerebral palsy. In this study it was conducted that children ages three to ten years of age, 3.4 per 1,000 were found to have autism, this was lower than the rate of mental retardation, which was 9.7 per