What is autism?

What is autism? Autism is a lifelong developmental disability meaning a child with autism will grow up to be an adult with autism. Autism affects the way a person can communicate with other people. All people with autism share certain difficulties and their condition will affect them in different ways. Some people with autism can live for the most part independent lives while others may need a lifetime of support. People from all nationalities and cultural, religious and social backgrounds can have autism, but it does appear to affect more men than women.

People with autism have much sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colors. They also have a lot of difficulties in social communication and interaction, as well as difficulties with different type of languages. They think that words are its a literal meaning so they take a literal understanding of it, and think people always mean EXACTLY what they say. Facial expressions/tone of voice, jokes and sarcasm, and sayings may be difficult to understand. For example, "It's cool", Which people might say to say something is good, but one with autism may take it as it is slightly cold. Some with autism may not speak, or have limited interactions. Some also repeat what the other person has just said (also known as echolalia), and some talk much about their own interests.

It is said that 4 times as many boys are found with autism than girls and one in every hundred people are found with autism. There is yet to be a cure or a reason on how autism is formed.

People who have autism have difficulties when it comes to social interaction. It is hard for them to pick on on social cues; therefore,it is really hard to make friends. Like cierra said they do not really understand when poeple make jokes or are sracastic. the gravity of their autism is measured on a sacle from one to ten, one being the leat autistic and 10 being the worse.

Autism is really a sad thing, but at the same time it's not! It's not like people with autism are really challenged, I mean they all have problems, but everyone does too, right?
I've met a few autistic people but I actually got to see how two of them really acted and socialized. I was related to one by mariage and the other was in my computer's class. Peter, the one in my class, didn't have it so severe. He just ALWAYS wore yellow shirts, and would yell at the class if it got too loud, he'd start talking about a ton of stuff, he was really smart. As for the girl I was shortly related to, she didn't talk to anyone, ever. She would rock back and forth a lot. She was a lot higher on the spectrum. They're all just normal people though!

Autism is just another way of experiencing the world, it's a very different way but people who have autism probably don't seem to mind because they have had not other experience of living, so it's a good thing that some might not mind that they are different.