For decades, rising autism and ADHD diagnosis rates have prompted urgent questions about whether something in the modern world is producing more neurodevelopmental difference — or whether we are simply learning to see what was always there. A decade-long analysis of Danish medical records, spanning 2012 to 2022, offers a measured answer: the early-life markers that once distinguished diagnosed children from their peers have grown steadily weaker as predictors, suggesting that expanding diagnostic criteria and broader access to specialized care — not a true surge in the conditions themselves —