Pediatrician Claudia Gold assesses the controversies around the rise in autism diagnoses: “The massive rise in diagnosis of autism indicates that something is amiss. I wonder if that ‘something’ is that in our fast-paced society we rarely take the time to listen to the story, to let meaning unfold. There is a need for an ‘answer.’ There is a lack of tolerance for uncertainty. When a child is young, when his ‘true self‘ is emerging, supporting parents efforts to ‘hang in there’ without the need to name, to label, to diagnose, may give these young children the best opportunity to transform what in early childhood may be challenges and vulnerabilities into adaptive assets and strengths.”
Autism: difference or disorder? (Child in Mind)
