squidkid.

I found this statement extremely interesting and had to look into it more to see if the claim was backed up by actual research or support from creditable sources . (That’s the journalist in me talking).

The Tulsa Autism Foundation sites that “a child with autism is much more likely to be drawn to water without realizing the hazards associated with it.” The National Autism Association writes “tragically, children and adults with autism are often attracted to water sources such as pools, ponds, and lakes. Drowning is a leading cause of death for a child or adult who has autism.” Creditable sources to make such claims. If I wanted more conclusive facts and evidence, I would check out medical journals but out by doctors that conduct actual studies on the subject, such as The Journal of Autism and Development Disorders. Journals like these are where journalists obtain facts to back up such breaking stories.

I found a blog called NTs Are Weird: An Autistic’s View of the World, with an entry commenting about the implication of autistics having a high rate of drowning. Here is what was said:

… do you know that 1,600 people between 0 and 24 [years of age] drown each year, accidentally, in the U.S.? And if we expect 1 of 150 is autistic, about 11 autistics would drown accidentally each year, in the US alone. That’s extremely sad, and that 1,600 number is a number we can and should do something about – these 1,600 people could have and should have had full lives. But sometimes the focus is lost from the fact that drowning, although very tragic, is not unheard of even in the “normal” population. And there isn’t a lot of evidence that it is more common among autistic people, either.

Then I found this autism foundation formed by the football player Dan Marino, which highlights a swim certification for people with autism. This program became particularly important to Marino when one of the Center’s families lost a child to drowning. In 2006, the his foundation funded the construction of an adaptive facility at the Miami Children’s Hospital/Dan Marino Center to develop a nationally-recognized aquatic program for children with special needs.

Here is how the Department of Health & Human Services defines autism:

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of life-long developmental disabilities caused by an abnormality of the brain. ASDs are characterized by problems with social interaction and communication skills and by repetitive behaviors. People with ASD are not identified by physical features, and the range of impairment can be very mild to very severe. A few people with an ASD have unusual “savant” skills, though IQ levels range from profoundly deficient to gifted. The main indicator of ASDs is unusual social development.

Also, eMedicineHealth has a lot of information about autism as well.