frequently, we have changes in the tools we have to be able to diagnose this, but there are also factors we don t understand and there are factors that this study doesn t necessarily tell us in terms of are we looking at a true increase, are we looking at better detection. the answer is probably a mix of those things. autism is not a simple disorder, and explanations of this increase are not simple, either. jenna: it s a tough story, even as a journalist to look at, again, going back to the mystery of it all, because you want to be responsible with the information but don t want to overly scare people. when you look at the numbers, especially for boys, one in 55, it s very high. so what do you think is the best message that parents should be taking away from this news? i mean, this is a disorder you need to know about if you re a parent, a pediatrician, an educator, at a rate of, you know, above 1 percent, we need to be thinking about autism across systems of care. we need to be thin
unlikely scenario so let s get behind romney, give him the money and raise the case against the president obama. jon: paul gigot, thank you. thanks jon. jon: paul will host the editorial report tomorrow, do not miss it. jenna: new concerns for parents of young children after staggering numbers from the cdc showing one in every 88 kids in this country are now diagnosed with autism, doctors urging parents to get children tested early if they show any signs of this disorder. we wanted to dig deeper into this and talk about how concerned parents really should be. peter bell is the executive vice president for programs and services for autism speaks, also joining us on the phone, zachary warren, director at vanderbilt kennedy center, treatment and research institute for autism spectrum disorders. we re going to talk to zachary in a moment.
peter, let me start with you now. your eldex son has autism. how old is he now and what was this journey like journey like for you as a pair snent. my son is tyler, 19 years old and he was diagnosed after his third birthday in 1996 and when the doctors told us he had autism, the prevalence was about one in every 1500 so my wife and i have seen this number continue to escalate, obviously, to the point now where less than one in 100, one in 88 children, one in 54 boys in america have autism. we for many years have been saying autism is an epidemic and certainly we have proof that it is an epidemic here in the united states. jenna: i notice that your organization, autism speaks, is the one using that term epidemic more than others. tell us about why you re choosing that language, and what you think needs to be done further. well, we re choosing that language because an epidemic means that you have an excessive increase in
new study from the cdc. more american children have autism now than ever before. you have 1 in every 88 children diagnosed with this disorder. it is an incredible story and we re going to dig a little deeper into it. what doctors are recommending with so many more cases reported. this is news you can use coming up next hour. also is jennifer lauren s weight in the hunger games being unfairly targeted by the mainstream media? the star s appearance under the hot lights. our panel takes up that debate coming up. laces? really? slip-on s the way to go. more people do that, security would be like there s no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there s a three-prong plug. i have club passes. [ male announcer ] get the mileage card with special perks on united,
disorder, simply because we still don t know so much about it. actually, i don t think we re at a risk of misdiagnosis. in fact, i think if there s any risk, we re underdiagnosing autism. there are many children who are still not getting the diagnosis. in fact, there was a study just last year that was published out of south korea that showed that the rate of autism there in a particular city was one in every 38. so certainly and actually, some of the states in this study had prevalences of under one in 50. so if anything, i think we re certainly maybe skewing towards underdiagnosis and unfortunately children are also not getting diagnosed soon enough. the one thing that we know is that the earlier you identify autism the better you re going to have an outcome because you need to get those children into early intervention so they can get on a good trajectory and ultimately be everything that they can be. jenna: quickly here, how is