Earlier this month, the CDC announced that the autism rate in the U.S. is currently 1 in 44 children, up from 1 in 54 in 2016. As some other people started to panic, I breathed a sigh of relief. My son, Walker, is part of the 1 in 44, and I am so, so grateful for the expanded diagnostic criteria that allowed him to get his autism diagnosis early so we could support him as he becomes the awesome human being he is working to be.