Utah Soars in Autism Rate

By Bonnie Boyd

April 16, 2007

Twelve months after Charlie Wilbur was born in American Fork Hospital, on April 19, 2004, his parents and pediatrician noticed he was behind in some developmental skills; six months later, he was diagnosed autistic.

One in every 133 Utah children, or an estimated 6,339 children, is diagnosed with autism – the third highest rate among 14 states in a study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in February 2007. The study examined the health of 8-year-olds in Utah and 13 other states in 2002.

Utah’s current autism rate is 20 times higher than two decades ago. Only New Jersey and Georgia had higher autism rates in males than Utah.

“[Autism] is a growing concern for our little world,” said Michele Wilbur, Charlie’s mother. “With as much autism as there is there is always a need to help these children.”

William M. McMahon, M.D., professor of psychiatry in the University of Utah School of Medicine and the study’s co-principal Utah investigator, attributed the rise in autism numbers with a better recognition of the disorder and a broader criteria of diagnosing autism.

Physicians are still researching, trying to find the cause or causes of autism.

Dr. Judith Zimmerman, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah and another member of the research team, said the public couldn’t rule out some other factors, such as environment.

Zimmerman advised families with concerns about their children’s development to seek professional consolation because catching it early helps.

However, help for Utah parents with autistic children can be very expensive, Zimmerman said. A common need for autistic children is speech therapy, and anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 hours a week is usually recommended. The cost can be $100 an hour.

“You can imagine the cost of trying to give them that, it’s a challenge,” Zimmerman said.

Nationally, 67 children are diagnosed with autism every day, costing the nation $90 billion a year, and that cost is expected to double in the next decade. Although more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined, public research funding for the disorder totals less than 5 percent, according to the press release.

“Using results from recent economic studies, we can estimate the combined economic costs for these Utah children are well above $20 billion across their lifetimes,” Zimmerman said. “Add into the equation the significant emotional strain placed on families and you will begin to understand why autism is an urgent public health issue and is believe by many people to be an epidemic.”

April Ashey, a BYU senior from Arizona who is majoring in Marriage Family Human Development, works with Charlie Wilbur doing applied behavior analysis called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). It is a program that rewards children for successfully completing simple tasks in speech, playing with blocks or puzzles, while ignoring negative behavior.

In two weeks of ABA Charlie has already improved, Ashey said.

“The principles [of ABA] are the same as what you do with healthy kids,” Ashey said. “I never considered doing this as a carrier until I got this job … I watch him twist his puzzle pieces in and get it right – it’s really exciting to see.”

While Charlie works with ABA and Kids on the Move, a program to help autistic children funded by the state, Michele Wilbur said it’s not enough support.

“Autism is a weird thing, where it’s not really recognized as a medical thing. We’ve turned to our own resources for ABA, we’ve tapped out as much as we can,” Wilbur said. “Charlie is being thrown into the school districts and I’m nervous about it.”

Source: BYU Newsnet