The Backyard State Simply Retains Rising Autism
Many thanks to our Anne Dachel for being one of the few in the media asking why no one seems to be alarmed by the ever-increasing autism rates everywhere, especially in New Jersey, where experts have been researching for decades. The fumbling has only gotten louder over the past 25 years as families, school districts, services burn to the ground. It’s a travesty. We are important. Our children are important. Your future is important. Life is more than Covid and identity politics or playing Americans against Americans for the $ omeone ‘$ agenda. There are tons of people with autism who will be LOST when their parents are gone because nobody seems to care. Money and money has gone into genetics, and advocates of disability have deliberately avoided severe autism while fighting for methods that just DO NOT WORK for much of the autism population. Here’s a dirty secret – ABA is an adult nightmare. It ends with school. The employees of the daily program have no training. Job coaches and employers don’t know what ABA is. The grocer has no training. Dentists have no training. ABA lives in a tiny exclusive school bubble. As soon as you are older? 80% accuracy is not enough. ABA is a liability at the age of 22. The request disappears. Community life? An apartment? A condominium? Ha! My daughters do not have voice control. NONE. They weigh 120 pounds and walk like beautiful mastodons. They melt down. They scream. You are singing Sesame Street at the top of your throat. One of them keeps saying HALLOOOOOOOO because she is EVERYTHING she can say. They wake up every day – every day – at 4:30 am and begin their loud joy. My children. My 3. Multiply that by your kids, your grandchildren, all of the kids. We have to be less polite about all of this. Rattle cages. Maybe even pick up pitchforks.
By Anne Dachel
Twelve percent of boys in Toms River, New Jersey have autism and no one can figure out why
More about the 200 percent increase in autism in New Jersey.
Check out this 3-minute video on autism in New Jersey featuring Dr. Walter Zahorodny casually cites the horrific rates of autism in boys and says it is all a mystery.
June 18, 2021, NJ Spotlight News: Responding to New Jersey’s high and rising autism rates
In New Jersey, where autism has been on the rise for decades, the rate is now the highest in the country. New research from Rutgers University shows the surprising increase. It rose from around 1% in 2000 to 3% and in some parts of the state as much as 5% today, raising the question of whether there will be enough resources and services to keep up with demand.
In May, First Children Services opened a new center in Roselle Park to offer a continuum of services from diagnosis. Matt Hess, CEO of First Children Services, said the goal is to keep such centers open as demand continues to grow in New Jersey.
REPORTER: The goal at … First Children Services … is to conduct activities in a natural group setting while being paired with individual behavioral technicians who provide applied behavior analysis or ABA services. …
This center… opened in May and CEO Matt Hess says it offers a continuum of services starting with diagnostics. …
Hess says there are plans to open more centers as demand continues to grow in New Jersey.
WALTER ZAHORODNY: It is very unusual for a disorder, disability, or health problem to increase so dramatically in a short period of time.
REPORTER: Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Walter Zahorodny, has been tracking autism in school districts in four New Jersey counties since 2000
ZAHORADNY: Autism has increased from about one percent to this new area, which is between three and five percent in some counties.
REPORTER: Ocean County, for example, had an overall quota of five percent.
ZAHORODNI: Boys are much more likely to have autism than girls. So if you talk about an overall rate of five percent, what you’re really uncovering is an eight percent prevalence of autism in boys.
Newark has it. Toms River has a rate of nearly twelve percent in boys.
REPORTER: The reasons for these spikes are still unclear, but Zahoradny’s research shows that the autism rate in New Jersey is higher than anywhere else in the US where it is tracked by the CDC.
ZAHORODNY: Age of mother, age of father, premature birth, own birth weight, prenatal exposure to certain drugs [has been shown] to influence the prevalence of autism, that is, to increase the risk a little.
But none of these small changes are enough to explain it a 200 percent increase.
So I think we still have some important risk factors, triggers, or triggers to discover.
MATT HESS: Some will say it’s due to the fact that we’re better at diagnosing and treating it and identifying kids who are on the spectrum. …
Let me add …
I have written about Walter Zahorodny several times over the years. He was amazed to see the breathtaking growth in New Jersey. Today he speaks of a 200 percent increase in autism. In 2014 it was a 43 percent increase.
In April 2012, Zahorodny appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC Radio. During the interview, the moderator brought up research on the possible causes of autism and made this comment: “I think we know what they are not, for example children’s vaccines, right?”
This was Zahorodny’s amazing answer: “Vaccines don’t play a significant role in increasing autism. A few children are likely to have autism from an adverse vaccination reaction, but they are not contributing to the overall increase. …
So a “small number of children” have autism because of their vaccines. Shouldn’t we all be worried?
While Zahorondny’s claim that thimerosal was removed by 2000 is clearly false, his admission that some children become truly autistic after vaccinations was alarming.
So how much of the rate hike is due to the vaccinations kids are getting?
More from Walter Zahorodny:
In this recent release, Zahorodny, the autism expert at Rutgers University, warns us that the terrible New Jersey numbers are likely to be the same across the country and that we should expect to get worse. He adds that we should do something.
This from a man who has observed autism in New Jersey since 2000.
June 18, 2021, NJ.com: More New Jersey children are diagnosed with autism. That will probably put a strain on schools
… The rate was much higher in some districts. In the Toms River Regional School District, the autism rate was over 7%, the highest in the state, research shows. Newark’s rate was about 5%. NorthJersey.com was the first to publish the results.
Walter Zahorodny, the researcher who conducted the study, said larger communities – Toms River is the state’s largest suburban school district – could have higher rates because their school districts have better resources for children with autism …
The New Jersey Department of Education did not answer specific questions about its plans to meet this growing need. In a statement sent via email, Spokesman Shaheed Morris said, “The NJDOE and its sister organizations have also made a variety of resources available to support families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
But as the cases of autism increase – Zahorodny expects the trend to continue – The state ministry of education and school districts need to figure out how to meet the complex and unique needs of more children.
Buchanan said that districts in the state are generally equipped to deal with the majority of children with autism who do not have intellectual disabilities, but that those who do need more care and resources. She also said that the districts’ ability to meet educational needs varies widely …
Zahorodny said his research had long shown that New Jersey has the highest prevalence of autism in the US But he said the state probably doesn’t have a significantly higher rate of autism than other densely populated areas of the country. New Jersey is just better at identifying cases.
In fact, he added that the rate of autism across the country is likely to be more like New Jersey’s 3.6% and less than the CDC’s national average of 1.9%.
“The rate in New Jersey is based on our ability to identify true cases, based on real quality information from educational and clinical sources, ”said Zahorodny. “In reality, I suspect that the autism rate is higher in places with lower estimates. That is an underestimation of the prevalence of autism. “
Statistics from the state ministry of education show that in 2019 only 1.7% of students – a total of 23,369 students – were classified as autistic. That means there could be thousands of children who are not getting the education they need.
Regardless of the exact autism numbers, Zahorodny said his research made one thing clear.
“The alarming signal is that we have to do something … pay attention and see this as a real phenomenon and make plans to serve the children,” he said.
Eileen Shaklee said she believed the government system works well when children with autism are young but falter as they age.
“It seems to me that from elementary school onwards they are getting older and are no longer cute,” she says, saying that they no longer get the services they need. “We have a huge problem when these kids get older.”
Anne Dachel is the media editor for Age of Autism.
