Key points

Autism arises from many converging genetic and environmental pathways.

Large cohort studies reveal complex developmental influences across time.

CDC’s update reflects a long overdue shift toward scientific complexity.

It is hard to keep track of how many times the CDC has revised its language, its guidance, or its sense of what counts as evidence in the autism world. And maybe “hard to keep track” is the point. Science moves. People panic . Institutions adjust. Then the public tries to make sense of it all while raising kids, teaching them, or trying to understand themselves a little better.

The CDC’s most recent shift about autism arrived with that familiar blend of relief and unease (CDC, 2025). Relief because it signals an attempt to reconcile policy with findings that

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