Thank you for posting this. The more scientists can learn about autism and how to treat it, the better. I think at the end of the day, they will find that it's a confluence of events that cause it. Not just genetics or envoirnment. It does seem to be a puzzle and unlocking it will help so many families.
I happen to agree it is more then one thing. This article even speculates as much since in some case there was a gene missing, however in others is was there but wasn't 'turned on'.
This has become somewhat fascinating to me because when you live with a child like this it is so beyond comprehension how they are effected by things that we don't think of. I saw a lecture by Temple Granden, autistic herself, where she said that things we tune out, autistics can not and different autistic children have different sensitivities. She talked about how even the most minute flicker in an overhead light, we would tune out instinctively, but it would be so distracting for the autistic person. It creates a danger for them, this sensory overload since they are apt to walk into the street while fixating on something that is distracting them or to forget that steam is hot being so wooed by the sight and shape of the steam coming off of a boiling pot of water.
It still amazes me how the mind works.
Thx Dixie and BEG for checking it out.