Since then she's been in a world of her own. Locked away on psychiatric wards, thought to be unreachable and unteachable, autistic people like Kathleen didn't pose much of a dilemma for society until recently. That has changed in the past several years, as children newly diagnosed as autistic have swamped special education programs around the country. The number of kids and teenagers labeled autistic rose from 23,000 in 1994 to 54,000 last year, an astonishing leap that suggests something in American life is driving a lot of children crazy. Whether or not those numbers reflect an epidemic or better accounting, they have helped generate a pointed debate about public health in general and the risks of vaccination in particular.
Autism is a range of disorders that share in common an inability to relate to other people.
Many autistic people never talk. Others manage to learn rote phrases. Many have odd behaviors, lining up their toys in a precise unfathomable order, compulsively wriggling their fingers. Some feel no pain when they smash their heads into the sidewalk. Some wander into traffic.