Discovering Autism Series

Los Angeles Times, December 11-16, 2011

Exploring the burgeoning rates of autism and its repercussions, Los Angeles Times staff writer Alan Zarembo interviewed dozens of clinicians, researchers, parents and educators and reviewed scores of scientific studies. Zarembo, along with Doug Smith and Sandra Poindexter of the Times data team, also analyzed autism rates and public spending on autism in California.

From the series description: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 1% of children across the country have some form of autism — 20 times the prevailing figure in the 1980s. The increase has stirred fears of an epidemic and mobilized researchers to figure out what causes the brain disorder and why it appears to be affecting so many more children. Two decades into the boom, however, the balance of evidence suggests that it is more a surge in diagnosis than in disease. The Times explored the phenomenon and its repercussions.”

Sunday: An epidemic of disease or of discovery?
Tuesday: Services go to those who fight hardest
Thursday: Families chase the dream of recovery
Friday: Finding traces of autism in earlier eras