Resources
Explore helpful tools, videos, and trusted community resources, along with important updates and information, to support autistic individuals and their families every step of the way.
Prevalence of Autism
Autism is the most common of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders, affecting an estimated 1 in 36 children and 1 in 54 adults (Centers for Disease Control, 2020). This means as many as 5.4 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism.
Autism knows no racial, ethnic, social boundaries, family income, lifestyle, or educational levels and can affect any family and any child. Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than in girls.
Autism Statistics:
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that autism is now diagnosed in 1 in 36 children according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
- Over 300 children and their families have attended programs at ABC of NC where we use a variety of educational and behavioral techniques.
- ABC of NC’s education programs require a high level of one-on-one teaching and continuous, data-based assessment by highly trained personnel. The U.S. Surgeon General supports the teaching methods used at ABC of NC as the most effective for children with ASD.
- There are hundreds of children in the Piedmont Triad seeking services from ABC of NC who do not have public funding or can’t afford the fees. The ABC of NC Financial Aid program provides direct assistance to these families.
What Is Autism?
There are at least two models for understanding autism:
Social Model of Disability
Disability as a natural variation of the human condition deserving of equal access, rights, and opportunities. Social factors such as environment, attitudes, and systems/institutions as the target of intervention/change.
Medical Model of Disability
Disability as an impairment/significant deviation from the normal human expression. Deserving and requiring treatment, intervention, and accommodations in order to ensure equal access, rights, and opportunities.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-V (DSM-V) follows the medical model, and autism is defined as follows:
Persistent deficits that are:
- Present in early development
- Causes significant impairment in functioning
- Not better explained by another disability
3 out of 3 social communication and interaction deficits
- Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
- Deficits in non-verbal communication
- Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships
2+ out of 4 restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior,
interests, or activities
- Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects or speech
- Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior
- Highly restricted, fixated interests of abnormal intensity or focus
- Hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment
Levels of Severity
Reframe Autism (reframingautism.org.au) describes autism as a developmental difference in which autistic people have more qualities and characteristics in common with other autistic people than with non-autistic people.
This model highlights primary differences in:
- The ways autistic people socialize and communicate
- Connect, make, and understand friendships/relationships
- Use speech and body language
- The ways autistic people think and process
- See patterns and connections
- Imagine and play
- Experience and express senses
- Emotions and executive functioning
- Brain development
- Dynamic expression of functioning across domains such as executive functioning, communication, relationships, emotional intensity; influenced by environment and individual circumstances
Signs of Autism in Childhood
M-CHAT (mchatscreen.com)
Medical Model of Disability
- Does not follow point to look at something of interest
- Absence of pointing to communicate wants interests
- Concerns about hearing
- Lack of responding to name
- Does not seem to understand simple directions
- Absence of reciprocal smiling, eye contact, and typical expressions of shared attention
- Absence of pretend play
- Likes to climb on things and high rate of movement activities
- Becomes upset by common enviromental noises
This model highlights primary differences in:
- The ways autistic people socialize and communicate
- Connect, make, and understand friendships/relationships
- Use speech and body language
- The ways autistic people think and process
- See patterns and connections
- Imagine and play
- Experience and express senses
- Emotions and executive functioning
- Brain development
- Dynamic expression of functioning across domains such as executive functioning, communication, relationships, emotional intensity; influenced by environment and individual circumstances
Co-Occurring Conditions
Several medical or psychiatric conditions occur alongside autism. These are called co-occurring conditions. Nearly three-quarters of autistic children are diagnosed with a co-occurring condition.
- 40-60% of autistic children also have anxiety.
- 30-80% of autistic children meet the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis.
- Research has shown that people with certain types of eating disorders are more likely to be autistic than people without eating disorders.
- About 80% of autistic children have some form of motor difficulty.
- 20-30% of autistic people have epilepsy. Seizures are most common in children under 5 years and in teenagers.
- About 5% of autistic children have Tourette Syndrome and another 9-12% have tics of some kind. Learn more about conditions that can occur with autism.
- Around 31% of people with a diagnosis of autism also have an intellectual impairment.
- Around 29% of people on the autism spectrum have skills that are considered exceptional, including their ability to remember and recall information, to draw using incredible detail, or to produce music that is pitch perfect. Learn more about other conditions that co-occur with autism.
World Health Organization
All people, including people with autism, have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
And yet, autistic people are often subject to stigma and discrimination, including unjust deprivation of health care, education, and opportunities to engage and participate in their communities.
Prevalence (cdc.org)
- About 1 in 36 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- ASD is reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. *
- ASD diagnoses are nearly 4 times more common among boys than among girls. **
- *Minority groups experience systemic barriers to information about, identification of, and access to services for autism.
** Presentation of autism in females is under-studied and under-diagnosed.
Community Resources
ABC of NC Resources
Interested in Financial Aid?
Financial aid applications are accepted throughout the year and may be awarded at any time throughout the school year, provided funds and classroom space are available.