You may know April for Earth Day if you’re an environmentalist or Easter Sunday if you’re religious, or the month whose showers “bring May flowers.” However, today, I’m going to introduce to you a side of April specifically meant for people with a disorder called autism. Officially known as autism spectrum disorder and formerly known as Kanner’s Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, it is a condition characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a need or strong preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing differences, focused interests or repetitive behaviors. Today, I—an autistic person myself—am going to tell you all about the disorder we celebrate during April.
- Autism affects 1 in 31 children, equating to ~3.23% of all children—an increase from the previous rate of 1 in 36 (~2.78%)—making it one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S. In addition to that, autism is more common than childhood cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. It also affects all nationalities, all creeds, all religions, all races and both sexes, although boys are nearly 5 times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with it.
- Hyperlexia, or the ability to read above one’s age or grade level in school, commonly accompanies autism. I can connect this to my experiences because I taught myself how to read at age 3.
- Children with autism are 160 times more likely to drown than typical children. This means for every allistic kid who drowns, 160 autistic children drown. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism, with up to 91% of deaths in children with autism aged 14 and younger resulting from accidental drowning.
- Each person with autism is a unique individual. People with autism differ as much from one another as do all people. Children and adults with autism may speak or interact with others. They may have good eye contact. They may be verbal or non-verbal—personally, I am verbal. They may be very bright or of average intelligence, and they have cognitive deficits. They may also express repetitive behaviors—rocking, head banging, and echolalia—when they are stressed, anxious, or upset. These behaviors are also known as stimming.
- Supporting an individual with autism costs a family an average of $60,000 per year, which is about $164.27 per day or $6.84 per hour, less than the federal minimum wage. The cost of lifelong care can be reduced by two-thirds with early diagnosis and intervention. According to two studies from 2015 and 2020, respectively, the lifetime costs of autism average $1.4 million to $2.4 million and can even reach $3.57 million.
- Employers are recognizing that creating a neurodiverse workforce is fundamental for success. Companies that recruit, retain, and nurture neurodivergent employees gain a competitive advantage in the areas of productivity, innovation, culture and talent retention, to name a few.
- People with autism also wander off sometimes. This behavior is known as elopement, or when a person with autism leaves a safe area or caregiver. About one-half of families who have members affected with autism report elopement.
- The exact causes of autism are unknown, but if you have autism, then there is a chance that you inherited it from one or both of your parents.
- There are celebrities out there who have autism, including Greta Thunberg (environmental activist), Temple Grandin (professor, best-selling author, animal behaviorist), Jennifer Cook (author of the Asperkids series), Rosie King, Kayla Cromer (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay actress), Hannah Gadsby (comedian known for Nanette), Tal Anderson (Atypical actress and author of the Oh, Tal! series), and Marian Schembari (author of A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole).
With these points in mind, you now understand that autism is a good thing, and people with autism are human. It’s not just me that has autism in my family: my sister Pasha, who is 12, my cousin Annie, who is 10, and my aunt Grace in the Netherlands are all diagnosed and they’re all proud to be autistic, just like me and the other 60 to 80 million people in the world.
