Autism is a developmental disability of the brain, much like dyslexia or attention deficit disorder. Autism is not a form of mental retardation, and though many autistic people act like they are retarded, but a lot of times they are very intelligent. The Autism society of America quotes "autism...occurs in approximately 15 of every 10,000 individuals and nearly 400,000 people in the U.S. today have some form of autism."

The sympots of autism may vary from person to person. Autism is called a spectrum disorder because the symptoms range severity across a wide range of conditions, like the colors of a rainbow. Also some people might be affected strongly by one symptom, while another person might be affect even worse by another. Here are the most common symptoms. Autistic people tend to have unusual sensory experiences. These experiences may involve a sense being too sensitive, less sensitive than normal, or difficulty interpreting a sense. That's why you might see an autistic person trying to avoid being touched. Their hearing and sight senses are also hieghtened, making noises that won't bother normal people drive an autistic person crazy.Autistic also people have a great deal of trouble understanding things in the social environment. If something suddenly happens, like someone starts to laugh or cry, they go into confusion because they are wondering "Why is he/she doing what he/she is doing" and they often panic. Some autistic people may be mute, or may occasionally lose the ability to speak, or need extra time to formulate or respond to questions.

A good thing is that children with autism can be helped through diet, medication, school and help from parents. Parent are crucial to the treatment of their childs autism. With they help of their parents, autistic children will soon be able to communicate better, increase thier verbal skills and perform tasks on their own.