Toledo, OH: Autism Society director says "THERE IS A HUGE INCREASE"

April 27, 2024, WTOL, Toledo, OH: Autism Society of Northwest Ohio providing resources for local families

Kate Schwartz, the executive director of the Autism Society of Northwest Ohio, talks with Dan Cummins for National Autism Acceptance Month.

News clip:

Cummins: It’s National Autism Acceptance Month, so we wanted to continue to let you know about the great resources here in the area. . . .

Autism is on the rise. I don’t know if that’s because more kids are actually getting autism or they’re doing a better job of diagnosing because it’s a spectrum and there’s a lot of different levels of severity, . . .

What’s your opinion  on that? Is it, is it really a worse problem.  I  know it’s like it’s a very high number of people that now have autism.

Schwartz: It is. The statistics are one in 36. When my children were first diagnosed that number was one in 150.

It’s a gamut. There was better diagnostics, you know, now pediatricians are screening at a much earlier age, 18 months and beyond.

And then there is a huge increase. We’ve changed everything in a lifetime.

We’ve changed how we eat, we’ve changed our farming techniques, we’ve changed everything.

So there’s really no know cause, but we do know that it’s on the rise. .  . .

Cummins: How many families do you have in the program?

Schwartz: So we have serviced, in 2023, we had over 2,000 referrals.

Cummins: Really? . . .

We’ve had doctors in here talking about autism as well, and like, there’s really no known cause for autism, but we are developing better treatment, better ways of adapting to your child. . . .

Schwartz: And the key to all that is the earlier that you can intervene through early intervention, you know, early screenings, the better outcomes that you’ll have, which is really, really critical. . . .