April 17, 2025 / 5:45 PM CDT / CBS Texas

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study this week showing a sharp rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr called it an epidemic and promised more research in the future.

Clay Boatwright is the proud father of the three girls, including Mia and Blair, who are identical twins.

“We went through the list, got to the bottom, and neither one of us had checked anything off the list, so that’s how we knew something was up,” Boatwright said.

That’s when doctors told the Boatwrights their two-year-old girls were on the autism spectrum.

“There were challenges. There were a lot of difficulties,” Boatwright said. “As it turns out, Paige and Mia are on the more severe end of the spectrum, so they are almost 25 years old. They’ve never spoken.”

Boatwright isn’t alone. The CDC released data this week showing one in 31 children will be diagnosed with autism by the age of 8. The rate is almost five times as high as it was in 2000. That’s when the agency first started collecting data.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. labels Autism an epidemic 

The CDC credited improvements in testing as one of the reasons for the increase. Kennedy contradicted that. He called autism a “preventable disease” and said environmental toxins are the cause at his Wednesday press conference.

“These are kids who many of them were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they’re two years old,” Kennedy said.

“I think that there’s a lot of possible causes and the science will continue to develop,” Children’s Health pediatric psychologist Dr. Kimberly Dooley said.

Dooley said signs of autism in kids can include a lack of facial expressions and children not responding to their name.

“We know that early identification leads to early intervention, so early therapeutic interventions can lead to a significant increase in skills for children with developmental delays like autism, because the therapies will specifically target the areas that they need additional support,” Dooley said.

Kennedy said the agency is planning to study possible causes of autism and release results in September.

“The only way to really understand that is to do the additional research. I think that’s great that Secretary Kennedy and others are wanting to put that focus against the challenge,” Boatwright said.

© 2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.