Thank goodness for Anne Dachel, who refuses to ignore the ever increasing autism numbers and the affect on schools around the world. Autism is yesterday's news everywhere it seems. It's front page news in most of our homes though. And we will not set it aside for Covid or anything else. Autism is in our DNA and our name.

By Anne Dachel

ONE IN EVERY 22 KIDS IN SCHOOL IN NORTHERN IRELAND HAS AN ASD DIAGNOSIS!

Up from one in 24 last year

Last week I posted that 4,500 kids in Northern Ireland were on waiting lists for autism assessment.

Some families were waiting for 4 or more years just to get a diagnosis for their child, and we were told that 4,500 was probably an undercount.

NOW comes the announcement from the BBC that almost 5 percent of kids in NI have autism. 

WAIT…while we're told that there are 13,000 children in the six counties with autism, imagine the real number if they added another 4,500 to that number.

STILL we’re told that nothing is really wrong. The increase is not a real increase at all.

"Increased awareness and the effect of the Autism Act NI, which was passed in 2011, have been highlighted as potential reasons for the rise in diagnoses…."

It’s mind-numbing how this can continue with no demand for an investigation into the never-ending increases. What will it take for officials in London to wake up to this disaster? One in ten children? One in five with autism?

Keep in mind that LAST MAY the Belfast Telegraph  announced that one in 24 children in school in Northern Ireland had autism.

Now this year it’s one in 22 and just like in 2020, the rate change is the result  of  “an increase in awareness and understanding of autism.”

Scarier still is the fact that 86 percent of these children are getting special education help.

May 20, 2021, BBC News: Autism: Almost one in 20 NI schoolchildren have diagnosis

An estimated 4.5% of Northern Ireland's school-aged population has a diagnosis of autism, Department of Health figures show

Almost one in every 20 school-age children in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with autism.

More than 13,000 children between the ages of four to 15 have a diagnosis of autism - an estimated 4.5% of the school aged population.

That is according to new figures published by the Department of Health (DoH).

The proportion of children with autism in schools in Northern Ireland has more than trebled in a decade.

In 2020/21, 4.5% of children aged four to 16 had been identified with autism or Asperger's syndrome, up from 1.2% in 2009.

While the DoH cautioned against direct comparison between years due to changes in the ways autism data is collected, they said an increasing number of children with all ages were being diagnosed with autism….

The number of children of school-age with autism has been increasing by about 10% a year for the past decade.

Educational support

While most pupils with autism have Special Educational Needs (SEN), about 14% did not have any SEN.

Some parents have previously told BBC News NI of their struggle to get appropriate support for their children's education….

Increased awareness and the effect of the Autism Act NI, which was passed in 2011, have been highlighted as potential reasons for the rise in diagnoses….

Check out the stunning number of stories about the special ed crisis in Northern Ireland in the UK on my website, Loss of Braintrust.