Undiagnosed Autism

I read an article about a study that was done recently that showed that there was a significant number of children and teens that were living with varying degrees of ASD and were as of yet undiagnosed.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/226151.php

"A new study utilizing a population-based approach that for the first time looked forautism among all children found prevalence of the disorder to be almost three times higher than previously thought." 


This is interesting, mostly because there is news of the growing number of Autism cases every year, however this study shows that this may be merely due to improper diagnosis of children who have been living with autism for years.  Most of these undiagnosed kids are attending school alongside all of the other students, receiving no special attention similar to the children diagnosed with varying degrees of ASD.


"The results of the study indicated a prevalence estimate for ASD to be 2.64% of the population; a number nearly three times previous estimates.  It is noteworthy that the previously identified children constituted 0.7% of the community and a remarkable 1.9% of the children were in regular classes without any prior diagnosis or treatment. "Prior to this new study, estimates put the prevalence of autism at one in 110 children, or less than one percent of the population,"


The study, which was done in Korea, and was radically different from other studies because it focused on the entire student population rather than a specific group like all previous studies involved with autism. 


John C