A family doctor has shared his thoughts on the dramatic increase in autism diagnoses in children aged five to eight.
According to Leonard Sax, who has worked in the profession for over three decades, autism diagnoses in children in the age bracket tripled between the years of 2011 to 2022.
While there has been an increased awareness of conditions such as autism in recent years, Sax feels like this isn't the only reason for more children being told they have the condition.
He further notes that it with autism it's hard because it's on a spectrum. While one person may be non-verbal, another person might be a critically acclaimed movie director like Tim Burton.
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Discussing the surge in diagnoses, Sax wrote in an op-ed for the New York Post: "I have been a family doctor for more than 30 years.
"OK, maybe increased awareness and screening have played a role, and without a doubt the 2013 changes in the rules for diagnosis do make it easier to say that a kid is on the autism spectrum.
"But my first-hand experience tells me that something else, something big, is being overlooked."
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And that thing is bad behaviour.
Sax argued that if a child behaved a certain way in the classroom 20 years ago, their parents would have been spoken to and told to teach their kid what's expected of them, but nowadays teachers may simply suggest that the child in question is on the autism spectrum instead.
"I call this problem the medicalization of misbehavior," Sax went on.
"I am not suggesting that it’s the only explanation for the rise in diagnosis. It’s not. But it’s definitely a big part of the story.
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"I have seen this with my own eyes, not only in my own patients, but in my visits to more than 500 schools over the past 23 years.
"In other words: That kid doesn’t really have autism. He is now being diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, but actually he is just a snotty kid whose parents don’t know how to parent."
Sax thinks this change has come is for a handful of reasons: firstly that it's an easier way out for teachers than telling people how to parent their kids, secondly because schools get more money if a child is diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum, and thirdly because parents don't see their children's problems as theirs anymore if they get a diagnosis.
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Sax went on to write: "As a family doctor, and as a father, I am convinced that one key requirement for success in life is to take responsibility for your own actions.
"The end result of the medicalization of misbehavior is a shift of responsibility away from the child, and the parents, to the medical/counseling/psychiatric complex."
The doctor further urged parents to 'push back against the medicalization of misbehavior' and to simply 'have the courage to take responsibility for your kid'.
Niamh Shackleton