One in Each 22 Schoolchildren in Northern Eire Has an Autism Analysis
Thank goodness for Anne Dachel for refusing to ignore the ever-increasing autism numbers and the impact it has on schools around the world. Autism is, it seems, yesterday. However, it is on the front page of most of our homes. And we’re not going to put it aside for Covid or anything else. Autism is in our DNA and in our name.
By Anne Dachel
EACH OF 22 CHILDREN IN NORTHERN IRELAND SCHOOL HAS AN ASD DIAGNOSIS!
From one in 24 last year
I posted that last week 4,500 children in Northern Ireland were on waiting lists for autism assessments.
Some families waited 4 or more years just to get a diagnosis for their child and we were told 4,500 was probably too little.
NOW comes the BBC announcement that nearly 5 percent of children in NI have autism.
WAIT … while we are told that there are 13,000 children with autism in the six counties, imagine the actual number if you added 4,500 to that number.
Even so, we are told that nothing is really wrong. The increase is not a real increase.
“The increased awareness and the effect of the 2011 NI Autism Act were highlighted as possible reasons for the increase in diagnoses …”
It is amazing how this can go on without the need to study the endless gains. What does it take for officials in London to wake up from this disaster? Every tenth child? One in five with autism?
Remember that LAST MAY the Belfast Telegraph announced that one in 24 school children in Northern Ireland had autism.
Now it’s one in 22 this year, and just like 2020, the rate change is the result of “an increase in awareness and understanding of autism”.
Even more frightening is the fact that 86 percent of these children receive special needs education.
May 20, 2021, BBC News: Autism: Almost one in 20 NI students has a diagnosis
An estimated 4.5% of the school age population in Northern Ireland have been diagnosed with autism, according to figures from the Ministry of Health
Nearly 1 in 20 school-age children in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with autism.
More than 13,000 children ages four to 15 have been diagnosed with autism – that’s an estimated 4.5% of the school-age population.
That comes from new figures from the Ministry of Health (DoH).
The proportion of children with autism in schools in Northern Ireland has more than tripled in a decade.
In 2020/21, 4.5% of children between the ages of four and 16 were identified with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, compared with 1.2% in 2009.
While the DoH cautioned against direct year-to-year comparison due to changes in the way autism data is collected, it said an increasing number of children of all ages are being diagnosed with autism….
The number of school-age children with autism has increased about 10% per year over the past decade.
Educational support
While most students with autism have special educational needs, around 14% had no special educational needs.
Some parents have previously told BBC News NI about their struggle to get adequate support for their children’s education….
The increased awareness and impact of the 2011 NI Autism Act were highlighted as possible reasons for the rise in diagnoses.
Check out the amazing number of stories about the Northern Ireland Special Crisis in the UK on my Brain Confidence Loss website.
