ATLANTA (AP) — A government report released Thursday shows no change in how common autism is among U.S. children.
[...] it's too soon to tell whether the number is stabilizing, said Daisy Christensen, lead author of the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For decades, autism meant kids with severe language, intellectual and social impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors.
Experts say that in recent decades, teachers and parents have been increasingly likely to say a child with learning and behavior problems is autistic, so at least some of the apparent increase through the years was due to different labeling.
