Expert: James Michael Roan - 1/23/2006

Question
what is your opinon on autism ?  And do you ever see a cure coming for people with autism ?

Answer
Hi Lindsay;

Researchers have identified 7-9 genes that are involved. The general consensus is that autism has an environmental and genetic component. We will only "cure" it when toxicity is removed, if ever, from the environment.

Autism has provided us with a unique opportunity to look at ourselves in ways we have never previously considered. Autism is a social communicative delay and individuals with autism demonstrate to the rest of us how dependent our cognitive and emotional development is on social interaction and negotiation. How and why we learn anything is a socially constructed process. Without others we are doomed to a life of loneliness and despair. People with autism, however, need others as do we but lack the natural ways to make and keep friends or to interact successfully with others. They have wonderful gifts the rest of us do not have, which is why I have devoted my professional life to working with them.

Good luck,
James