Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Emily Buerger The Center for Autistic Children in Philadelphia was the first clinic in the country to specifically treat autism. The above plaque is located outside of the center for the rehabilitation of autistic children.

Steve Infanti knew his everyday lifestyle would change when he became the father of triplets. He expected perfectly healthy children, as no ailments run in his or his wife's families.

Eighteen months after the three boys were born, Dominic was diagnosed with autism. It was soon after when Ethan and Cole were diagnosed as well.

Recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that one in every 150 children are diagnosed with autism or a related disorder like Asperger's syndrome by the age of 8. As of today, the study is the most accurate analysis of the disorder to ever take place in the United States.

Fourteen states were analyzed in the years 2000 and 2002. The study shows that number of autistic children has risen from the one-in-200 estimate made of the 1980s.

There has been much controversy over whether more children are actually developing autism or if the increase is a result in better studies.

Infanti said, "I think autistic children were often classified as 'shy,' 'dumb' or other names. People are more educated to it now."

"We know so much more about autism today than we did before. At one point people were saying that bad parenting was a cause," assistant professor of psychology Dr. Melissa Terlecki said.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, doctors have recently reported that genetics may be linked to autism. However, they cannot prove that this is always the case. Autism is also four times more likely to occur in males than females.

Autism was not hereditary in the Infanti family.

Symptoms for the triplets were similar; delays in communication, missing of developmental benchmarks, lack of gross motor skills and lack of fine motor skills.

Dominic, Ethan and Cole were placed in the middle of the autism spectrum after many rounds of evaluations at West Virginia University and the Capital Area Intermediate Unit.

Many places are working on being more educated on the topic in order to diagnose autism earlier and to help treat patients and families.

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