Autism Diagnosis Often Occurs Later for Black Children

I am a black, single parent of a child with autism. My child was diagnosed at age 3. A year later, my once non-verbal child, is saying full sentences. Early intervention is important. I think that the reason for the delay could be a lack of knowledge, denial and fear. We have to be super parents for our children regardless of their abilities. In some cases, this is lacking in the black community. As a result, our children suffer.

I'd love to see the data copiled for these "Studies" or at least know which methodology was primarily used to come to these conclusions. My son was not diagnosed until nearly seven years of age, another friend of his with asbergers not till 8 yrs old (becuase I pointed out simularities in the boys behavior) Both boys are white, I don't think that had anything to do with it...being poor and living out in the country where not much is known about it by the teachers and nurse practitioners, and I think this whole race thing is a waste of time and fodder for idjits.

My insurance wouldn't even guarantee that they would pay for the initial evaluation for my son (which cost nearly $4,000). All I could get out of them was " if we deem that the evaluation is 'medically necessary' we will cover it" - I asked when they would decide that, "after the evaluation". I ended up having to have my kid evaluated a total of 3 times in order to get anything other than a "borderline" diagnosis, as he got older it became "less borderline". It cost me $8,000 - it was apparently only 'medically necessary' the last time we had it done.
Can anyone here guess why some parents might wait?

It was so nice to read an article that DID NOT try to blame Whites for problems indentified to be more apparent in a minority .... but then I read the comment from "who", and realize that not much has changed. The article didn't mention a connection between diagnosis, and the single parent household. Perhaps there is a significant statiscal correlation?

Because the schools will do anything to not identify a black child so the classes won't look too black or too white. Cheat all the time on testing to make sure everything looks "even."

Look at Robin on Good Morning America she also found out she was black late in life.
She though she was Diane Sawyer's twin

Even that they just dont get until later. Hmm.

Maybe the kid's parents need to be more aware of their own children. A diagnosis starts with the parents asking questions and getting information. Stop blaming everyone else for your bad parenting!

Would someone explain what treatment could be given for autism? All I have heard was that a child could be diagnosed.

Shame on these people and there racist remarks.....I could say so much about the class less "white kids" and there parents but why bother you people are clearly the ignorarnt ones and I feel sorry for you and your children

Shame on you trollers, for spreading your filthy racist comments here.

Proof is Obama!

If they black community weren't working so hard to segregate themselves from the rest of society, the "culture awareness" factor wouldn't be an issue. If you won't make the effort to join in with the rest of society, don't cry that I won't make the effort to learn about your little world.

When a culture espouses stupidity and coolness over intelligence and education, it does make it harder to pick out the truly retarded.

As someone who works in the education system, the problem is that most black parents will not accept that their children are autistic. Many of them will not take the time to make sure that the children are seen by the proper doctors and psychologists. Many times the first real professionals that can notice the symptoms are teachers. But they have to call in school psychologists and other education professionals that have to do all kinds of paperwork to even get the process started. Then the child goes to a doctor for about 20 minutes to get "diagnosed". Then comes the problem if the child needs some kind of medication. God help the child then. More time taken out of the parents life, usually the mom 'cause baby daddy not around, and then she's mad about that.
Plus some of them blame the system for how their child is, like the teachers did it......forgetting it's their genes and chromosomes that made the child.

All I'm reading here is pure ignorance. You can tell the people that are making rude comments that are white..Racism lives...

So that's whats wrong with Obama. Talk about a late diagnosis!

I guess that's great inner city parenting for you....They have a good grasp on their kids

You can tell any kid who has this
The MAC and Cheese test... If they look at it as something to play with you
have trouble. I have et to see a normal kid not eat Mac and Cheese

There is a ton of research showing that racial minorities (not just African Americans) receive inferior treatment as compared with Whites for all conditions, from cancer to heart surgery, to mental health diagnosis. This is true even when comparing people with the same income and insurance coverage, or when comparing veterans in VA hospitals. All you have to do is google "health disparities" and you can find hundreds of articles. The problem is that too many doctors and mental health workers have their own biases or are simply not culturally competent.