As parents and physicians are so focused on development during childhood years, this may be why autism is said to be 'a condition of childhood'.

In undergraduate classes like Introduction to Psychology and Child Development, it is covered under childhood disorders. This is probably due to the fact that the condition (or state of being, if you prefer)manifests itself during early childhood. Oddly, as one of the most prevalent diagnoses, barely more than a paragraph is ever covered in "intro" courses. I spent more time learning about schizophrenia, PTSD, and mild mental retardation due to parental neglect than I did anything else.

Autism is certainly much more recognized than when I was growing up in the '80's and '90's, and I do believe it is in fact more prevalent. So at the current time, most of those with a formal diagnosis are children.

My son was diagnosed as a child, and I know he won’t outgrow it or be “cured”. As a mother, no matter how old they get, my neurotypical son and autistic son will always be my babies. It’s not a negative connotation. 😄

There is plenty of comments atm in the usa because a non verbal 17 year autistic boy was just sentenced to 5 years it's not clear if he will serve his time in an actual penitentiary or in state mental hospital....he beat his teacher for taking away his Nintendo switch an issue is developing with our kids and their screens both nuerotypucal and non typical are glued to their screens and I fully admit as a parent sometimes I just don't have the energy to fight so my kid gets her tablet then it's an issue removing it....generally a full melt down screaming crying sometimes self harm the tablet plays 2 roles my kid learns from repetitive watching of YouTube videos but a good chunk of what she watches is useless so it's a devil and angel at the same time but this situation will for a few days bring light to the fact that autism isn't something people grow out of all the time most often they don't