If you have time to comment on numerous blogs, you certainly have time to start your own blog. I manage both off and online activities for autism,manic depression etc and am a family man. I’m not suggesting you give over your life to blogging, merely that you stop telling others how to conduct their advocacy efforts.

Kev, I spend my advocacy time changing lives in my local community. I don’t have the time to blog. I spend my advocacy time as a board member of the state’s mental health board advocating for autistic people in my state.

Is blogging the only legitimate avenue to comment on autism in your view?

@livparents, I don’t trust database collections or citizen surveillance by my government, regardless of party.

The only way to opt out of surveillance is to opt out of services. But at the ADDM level the data is pretty anonymous, it’s down at the state and local levels that it becomes more questionable. NJ is even asking for ‘voluntary’ registration into and ‘autism’ database. But your privacy’s still safe…IF you trust your government. At this point, I’d sooner trust them that even ATTEMPT to keep my personal data completely private…

So a sensitivity of 0.60 means that if 100 autistic children are classified, only around 60 will test positive.

40 will give false negatives. Clearly, the false-negative rate is 1 minus the sensitivity.

The false-positive rate is very low, which is to be expected. It’s like I always say: Overdiagnosis is not the main issue in autism epidemiology. Past underdiagnosis is.