SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - April is National Autism month and the numbers are holding steady in the United States.
Dr. Stuart Shapira with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they did find that more children need to be tested at an earlier age.
Shapira says it's important that parents and providers move forward to get that first evaluation. They can go through their state's early intervention program and local school system, and get that evaluation for free.
The report also found that about a third of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder also had an intellectual disability, and young boys are almost five times more likely to be diagnosed than girls.
The report's lead author Dr. Daisy Christensen says overall there are fewer autism cases among African-American and Hispanic children but she says that may be because they aren't being tested. She says lower autism prevalence in these groups of non-white children may be due to a lack of identification, and if so, then better identification efforts in these groups might result in increasing prevalence in these children.
The report found only 43% of children identified with autism across the nation got evaluated by age three.
(Thanks Greater Dakota News Service)