I can sort of see some commonalities between most ASDs, but the sheer variety of diagnosed people I’ve met (from normal, successful, but slightly quirky to literally unable to do anything on their own) has always struck me as odd.
What exactly are the criteria for a disorder to be associated with autism? As a complete amateur, it always seemed like a very artificial construct. It also makes me curious about how valid the ongoing controversy about its cause could be, given the enormous variety of ways it can present itself.
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Autism isn’t one thing. Like USA is a bunch of countries (states) in a trenchcoat, pretending to be one, autism is a bunch of different conditions with vaguely similar symptoms. There’s a number of genetic markers correlated with it, but we really don’t know much about it, because it’s not a single entity. “It” is 80%+ heritable, though. (So when looking for prognosis for an ASD kid, you are best off looking at family member experiences).
Source: have had traits of the stuff in the family for 4+ generations, though my kid was the first to be formally diagnosed.
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