This affects their ability to communicate with others and relate to the world outside of the self. Medical researchers are exploring different explanations for the various forms autism may take. In some families there appears to be a pattern of autism or related disabilities, perhaps due to a recessive gene. However, autism appears in different forms and medicial research continues to search for a better understanding of this disorder. For reasons we do not understand, eighty percent of the children and adults with autism are male.
Autism occurs in every known ethnic and racial group.
Family income, lifestyle and educational level do not affect the chances of autism's occurence. There can be great differences among people with autism. About two thirds of the people with autism have some degree of mental retardation. Approximately twenty percent have a seizure disorder during part of their life. Those with the most serious form of autism may never learn to speak or understand the spoken word.