Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by a kind of "social blindness," an inability to communicate emotions and to read them in others' nonverbal behavior. Autistic people also suffer from language disorders ranging from being completely nonverbal to having more subtle difficulties involving expressive language or an unusual prosody of speech.

The main character in Rain Man, the movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise is autistic. The first-person narrator in Mark Haddon's novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has Asperger Syndrome, another disorder on the spectrum that is sometimes called High Functioning Autism.

Since the first diagnosis of autism in 1943, the number of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders has exploded, especially in the last 20 years. Current estimates of the incidence of ASD in the United States is 1:110 children. No one knows why so many more people are being diagnosed. In fact, no one knows what causes ASD, though most researchers agree that there appear to be genetic factors that are triggered by environmental factors. In the next decade about 500,000 children with ASD will become adults.

For more information on Autism Spectrum Disorders, see the following links:

"Autism's First Child" (Article in Oct 2010 issue of Atlantic Magazine)

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/10/autism-8217-s-first-child/8227/

Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership  

www.grasp.org/

Organization for Autism Research

www.researchautism.org/

Autism Web

www.autismweb.com/education.htm