Stigma Keeps South Asian American Kids From Autism Care
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- CDC data cited in the piece puts US autism prevalence at 1 in 31 children, a 16% increase over the 2020 estimate.
- South Asian American children are diagnosed with developmental disabilities one to one-and-a-half years later than white peers on average and access fewer services afterward, according to the op-ed.
- The primary barrier for these families is not language, insurance, or geography but stigma tied to izzat (family honor) and karma narratives that frame disability as collective shame or past-life punishment, Goel writes.
- In a clinic anecdote, one mother told Goel she had never spoken her 7-year-old son's autism diagnosis aloud to anyone outside her household — seven years of silence during which he did not receive services that would have required disclosure.
- Goel proposes three fixes: pediatric screening tools that account for cultural barriers to disclosure, community-based navigators embedded in clinics, and funding for culturally specific caregiver support rather than generic parent wellness resources.
- Jeena, a Southern California community organization, hosted a recent parent talk where attendees showed visible relief at having their experience named publicly, according to Goel.
- Goel is a double board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who previously worked at Johns Hopkins, Kennedy Krieger, and Kaiser Permanente and now runs MindClaire PC in Long Beach, California.
Why it matters: With autism prevalence at 1 in 31 children, the US screening and early intervention pipeline is built on the assumption that families will act on a diagnosis — but for South Asian American families, where izzat and karma frame disability as family shame, that assumption is wrong, meaning pediatric clinics, regional centers, and insurers face a one-to-two-year diagnostic and service gap that generic awareness campaigns will not close.
