In the article, "Three Reasons Not to Believe in an Autism Epidemic," the authors developed three arguments against the belief of autism as an epidemic. Furthermore, the authors assert that the causes of the increase of autism is affected by raised public awareness of the condition of autism, broadened diagnostic criteria, and improved case finding of individuals with autism. Beginning in 1940, there were only three known symptoms for autism. In 1980, there were six mandatory standards an individual had to meet in order to be diagnosed with autism. Then, in 1994, the provisions were broadened to sixteen optional criteria, eight of which had to be met for an individual to be diagnosed, but what was not mentioned was that before 1940, there was no record of diagnoses of autism. This gave the public the impression that autism was a newly discovered mental illness; this assumption was supported by the dramatic growth in the statistical data, which was employed to describe the increase......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: Three Reasons Not To Believe In An Autism Epidemic
Approximate Word Count: 611
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on Three Reasons Not To Believe In An Autism Epidemic, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!