Newsflash!

Let the media frenzy begin! The CDC just announced that 1 in 68 children have autism. Newsflash- too many children have autism! 1 in 88 or 1 in 68. Does it really matter? How much weight could we or should we put into this latest research?

First of all, I have devoured every drop of research available on autism. I am a science nerd. Give me an abstract and an interesting topic and I am going to ask, "what is the sample size?" "who conducted the research?" and "how can they replicate results?" The CDC's 1 in 68 is merely quantifying the results of the age old question- just how many children are on the autism spectrum? 

I gotta say I don't care how many! Frankly, the only right answer is too many! There are too many children with autism. So now that we have that detail out of the way, what are we going to do about it? Here are my top 5 questions related to this topic...

*How are we going to make sure schools have enough resources to educate a population of children with a wide range of skills?
*How can we make sure families have access to  insurance needed to pay for the therapies to help our children on the spectrum?
*When is society going to quit feeling sorry for us and instead accept who we are- families of children with autism? Guess what folks, you cannot catch it and you aren't going to die from it!
*What are we going to do with a generation of soon to be adults on the spectrum? Early intervention is crucial, but life skills and transition into the work force and real world are too.
*Finally, the question closest to my heart... When is the autism community going to quit with the in fighting? I don't care if you vaccinated your children, love or hate Autism Speaks, or whether you prefer thongs to granny panties. For crying out loud, we are all on the same team and even if we don't agree we still need some kind of unity. I have a lot of what I call, "mom friends," but the ones who I also share the autism experience with are a different kind of friend. Not better, just necessary for my sanity!

How do these new statistics help answer these questions?

So, I am glad the CDC made their announcement, now we can all go back to worrying about our children as we were prior to the latest news. In future blogging news... my thoughts on all the in fighting and why I only hate Jenny McCarthy for her bad MTV days. Thanks!