Autism in children may be overdiagnosed and wrongly branding socially anxious children with the condition could have \u201charmful implications\u201d, researchers have said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Experts said that behaviours such as difficulty maintaining eye contact or \u201ctoe-walking\u201d \u2014 walking on the balls of the feet \u2014 which are often seen as signs of autism in children, do not always indicate a developmental disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also questioned current methods of diagnosing the disorder, citing a study that found nearly half of children diagnosed do not meet the criteria for autism when reassessed by specialists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Latest government data shows that there are more than 166,000 autistic pupils in schools in England, an 8 per cent increase since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The NHS lists avoiding eye contact, not responding to their name, repetitive movements and reduced engagement in play as signs of autism in young children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lester Liao, a pediatrician at Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital in Canada, and Eric Fombonne, director of autism research at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, US, reviewed findings of various studies for an opinion piece published by the journal JAMA Pediatrics.<\/p>\n
They wrote: \u201cOverdiagnosis leads to resource dilution. There are only so many public sites and professionals for evaluation of autism and therapeutic intervention. Overdiagnosis diverts resources from children with the most significant challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cImportantly, it is often those who are better resourced, whether in terms of cultural capital or functional capabilities (eg, the capacity to speak and self\u2013advocate), who can navigate the medical system to ensure milder diagnoses receive support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis leaves the most vulnerable \u2014 those who cannot self\u2013advocate and exhausted families caring for their children full\u2013time \u2014 without the support they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liao and Fombonne argued that the \u201cexpansion of the term autism\u201d and an increase in diagnoses left those with more severe challenges caused by the condition overlooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They claimed that the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, a standardised 40-60 minute assessment used by clinicians, may be \u201cinterpreted incorrectly\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, poor eye contact may be due to inattention or social anxiety rather than to limited social reciprocity,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
Citing a different study, the experts said that almost half of children who received an autism diagnosis did not meet the criteria when they were re-evaluated by an autism research team.<\/p>\n
Liao and Fombonne warned that overdiagnosis could create a \u201cself-fulfilling prophecy\u201d where children labelled as autistic may have fewer opportunities to develop social and behavioural skills.<\/p>\n
They wrote: \u201cA child who is socially withdrawn is permitted to isolate, minimising habituation to social circumstances and decreasing social opportunities, thereby reducing social practice. The same applies to behavioral rigidities or sensory aversions. There is a risk of attributing all the child\u2019s troubles to autism, as opposed to, say, a circumstance, thereby reinforcing one\u2019s concept of the child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not allow a child to develop their full capacity. There\u2019s a significant difference between a child who has difficulty doing something and a child who utterly cannot. A spectrum does not negate this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, a government inquiry found that children and young adults are \u201cincentivised\u201d to get diagnosed with ADHD and autism and there has been a \u201cmedicalisation of distress\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The interim report found that there are \u201cinstitutional incentives\u201d to seek a mental health diagnosis as it is the \u201cgateway\u201d to unlock access to special adjustments at school and work.<\/p>\n
It said there was \u201ccredible evidence of increasing psychological distress\u201d behind a recent rise in mental health diagnoses, but added that normal difficulties may also \u201cincreasingly be interpreted primarily through a medical lens\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Autism in children may be overdiagnosed and wrongly branding socially anxious children with the condition could have \u201charmful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-530874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}