Diagnostic Substitution
We now think of autism as a ‘spectrum disorder’ with many more people included as we realize that many individuals have some signs of autism. Many of these individuals would not have been called autistic 10, 20 or 30 years ago—though their developmental differences were apparent. Labeling these difficulties as autism helps access to autism specific treatments.
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Is there more to your piece than just your assertion that "this is how it is"? The CDC itself has been saying for several years that the rise in the incidence of autism is very real and not just diagnsotic substitution. When you talk to long-term professionals in medicine , psychology and education they will tell you that they are seeing a lot more of these kids in the last 15-20 years than they did when they began their careers.
In fact, when Kanner began his work he had to travel all over the Eastern US to find 11 kids (which he said had a "novel" condition previously unknown). Had he started today he could have simply looked in any small city or large town and found 3 times that many.
The only place diagnostic substitution has taken place in the last 20 years is in the reporting to the US Dept. of Ed. by the States. The States have long been very poor at diagnostic accuracy, for a variety of reasons, and still are not reporting autistic children in numbers that would agree with what the CDC and other researchers have determined with their intensive studies.
Too many people will erroneously use the DOE numbers when talking about the rise in autism, both those who are supportive of the epidemic and those who do not believe it has occurred. Laidler was correct when he pointed out that this database is inherrantly flawed and cannot be used to conclude the issue.
However, when you look at research done by individuals like Burd, who found very low prevalance numbers as recently as the late 80's and the studies conducted by the CDC in Brick, Atlanta and more recently 14 sites in multiple States which found rates at least 1000% higher, there is little doubt that a true increase in prevalance has indeed occured.
I was there when the bow wave came in, when schools got nothing for the autism diagnosis. There is an epidemic.