Making Sense of It All

The data we've seen allow us to say several things with certainty.

First, autism today is not the same as autism ten or twenty years ago. The definition of autism has changed. The way autism is diagnosed has changed. Autism rates have changed dramatically. Whatever the reason, we have a new thing that we now call autism. Today's autism most likely includes what we used to call autism in the past, but it also includes a lot more than that.

This brings us to the second point - autism knowledge from the past does not always apply to today's autism. Autism has changed, and whatever we knew, or thought we knew about autism, may have changed as well.

Further, autism continues to change. While everything in nature always changes and evolves, there are things that have remained relatively stable over the years and for which knowledge accumulated over a long period of time still applies today and will most likely apply in the near future. This is not at all the case with autism. Autism is rapidly changing. This change could be simply a change of definition, or it could be a change in the biological nature of the condition. Either way, any knowledge about autism would need to account for its dynamic nature.

Finally, changes in autism have been gradual. While autism today is very different from what used to be called autism 30 years ago, it is very similar to last year's autism.