The report showed that the number of autistic children and adults entering the state's 21 regional centers increased by 273 percent from 1987 to 1998, with a 16.3 percent increase during 1998 alone. According to the study, these increases occurred at a substantially faster rate than other developmental disorders, such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy and mental retardation, which have increased about 30 to 40 percent, a rate consistent with the state's overall population growth. The latest figures from the department show that 1,027 individuals were added to the system during the first half of 1999, an average of six new individuals a day or one person every four hours. The majority of these are children under the age of 10. These are important questions that need to be answered to more clearly understand the nature of the increase in the state and to begin to know how to respond to the increases in persons identified with autism in California.
Autism is a complex and severe developmental disorder that has no known cause.
It is characterized by a child's inability to develop normal human relationships and to communicate, either through speech, facial expression or other interaction. Parents have expressed concern about the vaccines their autistic children received during infancy and early childhood and have anecdotal evidence that links autism to the scheduling of vaccinations. We will look at these and other medical, environmental, and diverse factors to assess their impact. During the one-year pilot study, researchers will randomly select individual case files from the 21 regional centers to get two study populations, one representing a statewide sample and the other representing a regional sample. The statewide sample is to insure that the study's findings are not based solely on one region's quirks while the regional sample will permit more complete sampling and set the stage for additional studies, such as comparing individuals identified by the regional center with school records.