Blog post #2: 

WebMD has written a recent special report on Autism called: "Autism Cases on the Rise; Reason for increase a Mystery" One of the main questions that everyone is asking is simply "What are the reasons that autism is increasing?" 
Studies show that during the 1970's and the 1980's, one out 2,000 children was diagnosed with autism. Now, researchers show that one out of 150 children of specifically the age eight years old, has autism. This is besides all the other syndromes and disorders that are similar to autism, there are different numbers for those individuals who are diagnosed with them. These numbers speak and reflect only autistic children. Another question that researchers are bringing to the table would be "Is autism truly on the rise, or do the new statistics simply reflect the growing awareness of the condition, the expanded definition, and other factors?" 
I found that to really be an interesting question because it might be true, that the statistics for the awareness is rising very much as opposed to the actual disorder. Us humans, especially when it comes to medical cases, we forget the facts start measuring things such as awareness than the solid cases of individuals that do have this disorder. 
But from the previous number of 1 out of 150 children has autism, that statistic speaks for itself and says a lot more than awareness. There is a significant increase. Over the years there have been studies of the number of autistic cases, during the early 1990's the number of cases and the type of cases were stable, but when coming closer to the year 2000 and after that, the cases increased and there began to be an instability with these cases due to how quickly the numbers rose. Some researchers say that the reason of the increase could mainly be because of the definition, that it keeps changing and a kid that is considered to be autistic today, could have just been considered retarded a decade ago. Causes of autism are mainly genetics and from biological characteristics. They are all found inside the individual but these faults are visible clearly outside the individual. Based on my opinion I think that first the definition of autism should be stabilized, not every case is the same like the other. It's like looking at some one who has a stomach ache, they're stomach is in pain because of something they ate that is has their stomach acids reacting in a different way, different people, but same foundations to the case. When it comes to autism, there are thousands and thousands, but not only are they different people, but different cases as well. Once a definition is set and this disorder has stable specifications, then maybe the numbers might change. It's great that there is much awareness on this topic like there should be, but the awareness should not be measured and taken to accountability on why there is an increase. 

Resource:"Autism: Cases on the Rise; Reason for Increase a Mystery." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 20 June 2014.