‘Autism cases soar.” The headlines this week have been dramatic, as well they might be, given a reported 600% rise in diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder.

The statistics are alarming. In 1999 there were 114 autistic children in Scotland’s secondary schools; now there are 825. In primary schools over the same period the numbers have risen from 415 to 1,736. But while I have no doubt that Bill Welsh, the chairman of Action Against Autism, is entirely well intentioned when he labels the recent statistics a “public health crime”, he is scaremongering in the most sensational way. Look behind these stark figures and reports of an “epidemic” of autism are grossly exaggerated.

The plain fact is that autism has attained a certain notoriety, particularly after the MMR scare — and despite the fact that the study by Andrew Wakefield linking the condition with the triple vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella was so thoroughly discredited in this newspaper. Since the publication of Mark Haddon’s excellent novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — whose hero is a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome — it has become even more fashionable.

To the great distress of parents whose children really are on the autistic spectrum, the condition has been adopted by many other parents on behalf of children who are not ill, just badly behaved. If a child is described as “autistic”, nobody can be angry if he or, more rarely, she throws a tantrum at school or consistently irritates the neighbours.

Children know that if they suffer from some kind of behaviour “ism”, good things result: reduced expectation, indulgence instead of punishment, safety from even the gentlest rebuke. At the first sign of a teacher’s impatience, the child can rush home and cry “abuse”. Autism, a serious condition when real, is being exploited by others for all it’s worth.

And it’s worth quite a lot. A diagnosis of some kind of behaviour “ism” might result in £80 a week disability living allowance. If a parent has to become a carer, it is worth even more. I stress again that there are families who absolutely need and deserve the state’s help with children who really do suffer from neurological disorders, but there are also families whose children are not ill and therefore deserve no such help.

Christine Grahame, the SNP MSP who has taken it upon herself to brandish the autism statistics about, needs to be careful she is not being taken for a mug. “Autism-specific inspections have been negligible,” she says. “Those pupils with autism deserve to have the right level of support in place, not just from educational staff, but also from supporting health professionals.”

Indeed they do. But we also need to understand that inspection will not be synonymous with accuracy. An inspector’s job depends on giving bad news. Create an autism-specific inspectorate and, within moments, without children being any different, the 600% increase in autism will become a 1,200% rise.

Some say that the MMR vaccine should be delayed until the child is between 18 months and two years old. However, what we should really be doing in the face of the “autism epidemic” is not showering “isms” on children, but finding out the true reasons they are doing badly at school and are unable to communicate. Nine times out of 10 it will be family breakdown, community paralysis, hopeless parenting or, perhaps more controversially, putting a child into a large nursery from the age of six weeks so that one-to-one communication is minimal from the word go. If a child cannot concentrate, why automatically blame autism? It is not autism that makes so many children fidget all the time, it is habit. Children unused to staring at anything static, or making conversation that does not consist of grunts, are bound to appear strange.

However, although some may be autistic, I doubt that most are really ill. Some may just be clever and bookish while others are simply suffering from a peculiarly modern kind of neglect and adapting their behaviour to cope.

There are no perfect parents. But it must surely be the worst kind of damage to label your child with an “ism” when there is nothing wrong except that you’ve not done a great job at child rearing. With effort, you can often remedy your own failings, but once you place your child in the hands of the “ism” authorities, who knows where they may end up? For the sake of all our children, let’s treat these “shock, horror” autism statistics with extreme care.

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