In the United States, one in every 68 children have autism spectrum disorder. It can affect any child, of any race, but is four times more common in boys than girls. Autism has many different symptoms displayed differently in each child, and therefore its classified as being a “wide spectrum disorder.”

Every single day, we use our brains to interpret all the numerous amounts of messages that enter our brain that we see, smell, touch, hear, taste and experience. Let?s say for a moment, you aren?t able to interpret these things, making it hard to process what someone has said to you. This would affect how you play, understand, listen and learn. This is exactly what a person feels like with autism. When a person has autism, their unable to make certain connections to things that would otherwise be easily made. There is no emotion because their unable to process what emotions look like, making them very hard to understand.

The Causes Of Autism
-Autism is the result of an abnormality within the nervous system, and is unknown in most cases. No one knows the exact cause of autism, but scientists believe there to be strong genetic components and environmental factors.
-The families who have one or more children with autism, have a low risk of having another child who is autistic. Studies have found there to be a link between first degree relatives and autism.
-Some of the children who get diagnosed with autism, are connected to an underlying medical condition. These conditions do not cause autism, but children with these conditions are found to be autistic. These conditions include, congenital infections, metabolic disorders, genetic disorders, developmental brain abnormalities, and neurological disorders acquired at a time after birth.
-The exposures and environmental factors may interact with genetic factors causing an increased risk of developing autism in some families.

Proposed Theories
Over time, there has been many different theories that have been discussed regarding what causes of autism.
–Vaccines: Even though the mercury preservative is used in many of the vaccines, it?s known to be neurotoxic, and has yet to be linked to autism. Many of the research which has been studied, suggests there to be no link between vaccines and autism.
–Emotional trauma: The theory of bad parenting, causing a child emotional trauma at a young age was to blame. This theory has been reportedly rejected.