PAEDIATRICIANS don’t necessarily follow guidelines for diagnosing autism, a lapse which may underpin Australia’s galloping increase in the disorder, an Australian study suggests. 

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common diagnoses made by paediatricians after ADHD and specific learning disorders, researchers say.

But their study confirms not all of the physicians adhere to diagnostic recommendations for autism more than 50% of the time. 

Donald Grey Triplett was the first person to be diagnosed with autism. The fulfilling life he has led offers an important lesson for today, John Donvan and Caren Zucker write.

After Rain Man, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, the next great autism portrayal the stage or screen might want to consider taking on is the life of one Donald Grey Triplett, an 82-year-old man living today in a small town in the southern United States, who was there at the very beginning, when the story of autism began.

The article by Rick Morton (“Alarm at autism doctor shopping”, 19/1) provides evidence of the abuse of autism support schemes that Andrew Whitehouse says occurs only because parents seek the best for their child (“NDIS provides basis for streamlining autism diagnosis”, 19/1).

A worrying number of private schools are refusing to enrol students with a disability or asking them to leave, a peak advocacy group says.

Children with Disability Australia receives about 500 reports a year of schools, both private and public, mistreating or discriminating against students with a disability.

These range from schools refusing enrolment because they already have "their quota of autistic students" to teachers asking students to leave.

GPs should be given stronger guidance about how to diagnose autism to prevent “doctor shopping” by desperate families trying to access funding for their children that is tied to a medical ­definition, researchers say.

New, nationally consistent guidelines that crack down on fluid interpretations of the international Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) — the global yardstick for identifying a suite of mental disorders — would push down prevalence rates, which have been climbing dramatically in Australia for years.

Australia needs a better system for diagnosing autism in the wake of dramatically rising prevalence rates that The Weekend Australian correctly reports have contributed to a demand in the school system for support that is not available (“Crisis in the classroom”).

It is beyond dispute that the numbers of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have risen considerably over the past three decades. This trend is not unique to Australia and is observed across the Western world.

“Autism explosion”, declared The Australian’s headline on January 15. “Schools failing”. Journalist Rick Morton’s piece led with an alleged:

… crisis in schools that education systems are unable or willing to fix.

Imagine starting your first year of school with a ­volcano inside you. The sound of a ticking fan could overwhelm your senses or the heat from another’s body might stoke its rumbling. Any number of noises or smells can trigger the meltdown of an autistic child who might explode at home if one food touches another on the dinner plate. They might suddenly throw themselves onto the floor, screaming, hitting and kicking out at ­anyone who tries to restrain them.

A dramatic rise in autism diag­noses has fuelled a surge in the number of students with disabil­ities, sparking a crisis in schools that education systems are unable or unwilling to fix.

A Senate inquiry into the issue reported yesterday that the education system was failing stud­ents, who were being excluded from enrolling because their disabilities were seen as a problem for individual schools.