ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been remarkable growth in the amount of attention paid to autism. Only a generation ago, the syndrome was thought to be too rare, and its expression too diverse, to warrant much scientific attention. The condition was blamed on poor parenting, treatment was primitive to nonexistent, and diagnosis was delayed or often simply not made at all. In the past 35 years we have seen enormous gains, many of them arising from the efforts of motivated individuals with autism and their families.
