Old(er) fathers related to autism?

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It seems that people with autism tend to have older fathers. I thought I'd do a poll...

Any thoughts or comments on the matter are welcome...

Last edited by ThomasL on 21 Nov 2010, 4:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I remember my dad being significantly older than my mum. He may have been 40 when I was born.
He may have also been on the spectrum.

That's interesting.... my dad was 18 years older than my mom, and was 44 when I was born. I suspect both of my parents were on the spectrum.

My dad was only 24.

My dad was 24 when I was conceived.

My dad was 23 when I was born.

I've heard this too, but my Dad was in his twenties. I think both my parents could be Aspies though neither is diagnosed.

My dad was 48 and a half when I was born. He was 42 when he met my Mom (then 29) at a dinner party hosted by a group called Dinner Parties Unlimited with the purpose of helping people who were single and looking find love. That's just how long it took for my dad to find someone he could have a healthy, functional relationship with. My dad has always been more interested in reading up on various statistics in his almanacs than getting out and meeting people. He's never been particularly socially inclined. He's told me that his parents didn't expect him to ever make it work with anyone. Incidentally, my dad has also told me that I'm more similar to him in personality than anyone else he's ever met. Hmmm...
I do think it's likely that the father I have has something to do with why I'm almost definitely on the spectrum. I don't know that his age has anything to do with it, though.

He was "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" - 42. While he may have had a couple of traits, I do not think he was an aspie. I have no reason whatsoever to suspect my mom of being an aspie. She was 35 when I was born.

Mine was 67 when I was born . My mother was 41 (41 was OLD for a new mother of a first-born in the mid 1960s; much more rare than today). The sad part of older parenthood for the child is, that both of my parents died of old age-related causes before I finished high school.

As far as the question behind the poll; I don't recall having read any studies that tie older fathers to Autistic children, but anything's possible. Other Autistic and Aspergers people with whom I'm acquainted, have normal age range parents. If I had to take a guess as to the "CAUSE" of autism, I'd go with pure chance and happenstance.

Charles

My dad was 20 when I was conceived, 21 when I was born.

He was fifty-one. My mom was... twenty-seven. You know, I've never done the math before...

My dad was 25 when I was born, and my mom was 22.

It seems less likely that the age of the father increases the likelihood that his children would be autistic and more likely that the autism of many fathers will increase both the age at which they procreate and the likelihood of the children being autistic.

If asking about the age of autistic people's fathers when said autistic people were born, if those people whose fathers or mothers were older when having children, it makes sense to ask this question: Were those parents themselves autistic, possibly autistic, or neurotypical?

Ah, this is an interesting possibility.

But the theory I read is related to the newly discovered fact that men's sperm apparently deteriorate with age (the age of the man, not his sperm). In other words, older men have (slightly) lower quality sperm than younger men, and consequently a (very slightly) higher rate of birth defects in their children.

I don't remember the specifics, but this was the general idea.

My Dad was 29 and My Mom was 36 when I was born. My sisters were born several years later though and they are fine.