SALT LAKE CITY — It was the "mother of all meltdowns" and Laura Anderson has the bruises to prove it. But it is anyone's guess as to what caused her 14-year-old autistic son to throw a fit earlier this week.
She thinks it could have been the chicken nuggets. They weren't his favorite brand. Then again, it could have been a slight change in his normal routine or even the recent changes in the weather.
"It's our life," Anderson said. "It's what I'm used to and I have nothing else to compare it to."
She is not alone in her struggle, as nearly 10,000 children in the state of Utah have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which includes autism, Asperger's and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
With the newly implemented Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disorders, researchers have found that autism numbers in Utah are on the rise — in fact, they doubled between 2002 and 2008, making it a one in 77 chance that an 8-year-old child in Utah is autistic.
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