Comments on: How many autistic amish?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:54:23 +0000

I find the …tried to destroy my reporting… line amusing. A blatant statement previously that the Amish had no autism, that is reporting? I think not, that is more like gossip and rumor passing.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:01:04 +0000

I see. The 0.015% is a percentage of the whole population, but it’s calculated based on the number of children who are thought to be clearly regressive in the US.

The Amish population was 198,000 in 2000 [Wikipedia]. The Amish population of Pennsylvania is 39,000, but 25,200 in Lancaster specifically.

By: Kev

Kev — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:41:39 +0000

Pensylvania. OK.

So 0.015% of 48600 is approx 7 ‘clearly regressive’ kids.

By: Kev

Kev — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:39:36 +0000

Hi Jospeph,

I should’ve been clearer – the 0.015% figure applies to children (ages 0 to 21).

If Olmsted wanted to breakdown by state hw could use this source. I’m not sure what State Lancaster County is in though.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:07:58 +0000

So, in real terms we are looking for (0.015% of 220,000) 33 ‘clearly regressive autistic’ people.

That would be all ages, including children too young to be diagnosed, plus adolescents and adults, which I don’t believe Olmsted was looking for. How do you find a clearly regressive adult anyway?

Additionally, I believe Olmsted has focused on Lancaster County. It is highly unlikely his searches outside Lancaster County have been very thorough. For that matter, I’m not sure his searches in Lancaster County have been very thorough.

Another quibble is that it’s unlikely Olmsted has the means to tell clearly regressive from non-clearly regressive.

BTW, here’s some information I found about the Old Order Amish of Ohio.

The Amish are 12 percent of the local population, but their children represent close to half of the area’s most severe cases of mental and physical retardation.

(source)