US rates of autism diagnoses have increased over the years , as shown in this graph . Numbers are averages of prevalence among 8-year-old children from several reporting sites of the CDC ' s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network . Not all sites reported in each year shown , and the ranges can be broad ( for example , in 2000 the average was 6.7 per 1,000 children , but the range from different reporting sites was 4.5 to 9.9 ). At least part of the increase is due to heightened awareness and shifting diagnostic criteria .
clinical psychologist at the Yale Child Study Center , is that they see a recognizable , if broadly defined , constellation of behaviors . “ So really , there is something true about autism , and everyone who meets the diagnosis of autism shows these kinds of behaviors .”
At the same time , the subtle differences in how each autistic person manifests the telltale features make it highly individual , says Pauline Chaste , a child psychiatrist at Inserm U 894 , the Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences , in Paris . “ We describe a specific behavior that exists — that kind of social impairment and rigidity . You can have more or less of it , but it definitely exists .”
Instead , there will be patterns
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