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What I am seeing at the middle school level are diagnoses of autism for kids that are 12-14 because they do not "reflect the actions of normal peers." As an example, 3 years ago, we had a girl that screamed at the top of her voice, ran down the hall crying, curled up in a ball at any perceived slight by another student or an adult, refusal to work, throwing desks, biting, pulling hair, and hurting herself by scratching long furrows into her skin. Instead of diagnosing her as Emotionally disturbed, she was diagnosed as autistic because she had "communication problems."

That type of behavior is not autism and is not what parents see when their kids go from interactive to withdrawn around 18 months to 24 months. But it is easier to tell a parent autistic rather than emotionally disturbed. This type of labeling is fueling the explosion of autistic numbers.

Your comments are exactly what has been happening with the diagnosis. However, what I don't quite understand is how, with the expanded definition of autism, the numbers are supposedly going down!

I guess it's true....figures don't lie but liars figure.

There are exceptions to vaccinating your child. I believe the Quakers are exempt and egg allergies, and migraines.

I used the migraine excuse to get my daughter out of the hepatitus vaccine when she was in college.

At that time they were only forcing freshmen to have the innoculation and my daughter was a junior.

The bad part of the hep vaccines is that they are dangerous if you already have hepatitus....a disease that can be undiagnosed and have no symptons. There is a pre test but it is not used unless the parent insists.

Most people are uninformed about the vaccines, their side affects, and their rights of the parents.