Autism Quotes

Families in the autism community have shared with me their fears as their children transition to adulthood. Many people lose access to crucial services and face tremendous uncertainty if their parents can no longer care for them.

Vaccines don’t cause autism. Vaccines, instead, prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction.

I decided to study special education and fell in love with working with individuals with autism. That’s what I planned to do with my life.

I’ve worked with tons of people that I know who are on the spectrum – but now I think severe autism has really increased.

I treasure my meetings with individuals affected by autism – parents, children, teachers and friends. Their strength is inspiring. They deserve all possible opportunities for education, employment and integration.

My mom was a special-needs teacher for many years, so I knew her students. And one of my best friends from when I was growing up is a teacher for kids with autism now.

What is important is to treat everyone like an individual and learning not to generalize autism. With autism, people make assumptions, but it’s very broad, and everyone’s so different. You have to treat each person as an individual.

There is abundant science out there that connects mercury exposure in vaccines to not only autism, but to ASD, to SIDS, to ADD, ADHD, language tics – which is like Tourette Syndrome – OCD, asthma, food allergies, and diabetes.

My two little twin brothers have autism, so I grew up around it and misunderstood it for a long time.

Genes are thought to contribute a certain amount to the cause of autism but it’s not 100 per cent. It might be about 60 per cent genetic. So there are going to be environmental factors that mediate the impact of autism.

I have a long-standing relationship with Autism Speaks. I’ve been supporting them for many, many years now.

I think we use a lot of words and labels when trying to describe people: ones with autism, ones without autism. In general, I think that labeling people is a major issue, and people don’t understand the power of language.

Most people think that it would be hard to be on a set or act for people with autism. But when you think about it, most people with autism use a script in their daily life to communicate in social situations, like at a restaurant, or you know, with a day-to-day conversation.

Autism has touched many families in West Virginia, including mine.

I have an older brother who has autism – James.

A National Database on Autism Research is fostering sharing of data and collaborations. Scientists are also making great strides at the interface of biology and engineering with new technologies that are laying the groundwork for future advances.

Studies by many labs have already started to identify specific circuits of neurons involved in normal cognitive function like memory and learning, as well as disease processes such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, and autism.

Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley.

With the incredible rate of growth of autism diagnoses in New Jersey, it is critical that we support the research, education, and access to services that individuals on the autism spectrum and their families need.

The government is slowly waking up to the scale of the personal tragedy of delayed autism diagnosis.

As a scientist leading a funding agency for autism research, I think of autism as a neurodevelopmental disorder.

I worked for a while as a teaching assistant while I was struggling. I really enjoyed it, working with kids with special needs, autism. It takes a hell of a lot of concentration, and you’ve got to focus on the child properly for seven hours a day.

A lady emailed me that her child had been diagnosed with autism and that hearing my material on the subject had helped her. To me, it just means that I’m making the right decision in talking about this.

Because people with autism are also strongly obsessional, meaning that they pursue their current interest to extraordinary detail and lengths and in great depth, they can develop ‘tunnel vision’ that prevents them from seeing the bigger picture, including the repercussions of their current actions.

Anyone that tells you what does or what doesn’t cause autism is simply not basing that on facts.

A child gets vaccinated and soon after, autism symptoms emerge. The apparent cause-and-effect is understandable but erroneous – more a coincidence of the calendar and childhood developmental stages than anything else, as repeated and exhaustive studies have shown.

I wished to God the doctor had handed me a pamphlet that said, ‘Hey, sorry about the autism, but here’s a step-by-step list on what to do next.’ But doctors don’t do that. They say ‘sorry’ and move you along.

We’re very interested in helping individuals on the autism spectrum cope and learn about social interactions and regulating emotions.

My wife Cecily Adams was dying of cancer, my daughter Madeline was struggling to overcome an autism diagnosis, and my father was dying, all at the same time. Writing the journal was a cathartic experience, and an extremely positive one.

Autism typically means a person may not be fully aware of the consequences of their actions, or understand the consequences of their behaviour on others.

What causes autism? As far as we know in 2013, there is no single gene or single environmental factor that accounts for the more than 1 million Americans with ASDs.

The idea that vaccines are a primary cause of autism is not as crackpot as some might wish. Autism’s 60-fold rise in 30 years matches a tripling of the U.S. vaccine schedule.

To measure the success of our societies, we should examine how well those with different abilities, including persons with autism, are integrated as full and valued members.

I think the core criterion is the social awkwardness, but the sensory issues are a serious problem in many, many cases of autism, and they make it impossible to operate in the environment where you’re supposed to be social.

Information’s right at our fingertips, but so is what you want to believe. It’s the classic thing of someone Googling ‘autism vaccines’ – they’ll find what they’re looking for, depending on what they think. You’ll find lots of people who are just bolstering what they already think, bolstering their cultural attitude.

Autism and seizures are the least known areas of illnesses.

The idea of a cure for autism is itself controversial. Some people with autism say they don’t want to be cured, because autism gives them a different way of looking at the world.

People with autism are extremely good at working… in a scripted environment, because that’s how they live their lives a lot of the time.

If you Google some sites about the link between vaccines and autism, you can very quickly find that Google is repeating back to you your view about whether that link exists and not what scientists know, which is that there isn’t a link between vaccines and autism. It’s a feedback loop that’s invisible.

Everyone recognises that genes are part of the story but autism isn’t 100% genetic. Even if you have identical twins who share all their genes, you can find that one has autism and one doesn’t. That means that there must be some non-genetic factors.

What is missing from today’s dialogue is the effect autism is having on families, our society and what the unknown factors are. The 300lb. gorilla in the room is that our children with autism today will soon become adults with autism.

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by social withdrawal, by repetitive behaviors and by some kind of focal attention in its classic form. Basically, it’s an inability to relate to others.

When our son’s autism was diagnosed at the age of 2, there was no clear prognosis. We didn’t even know if he’d ever learn to talk. But we found talented people to work with him and he improved, slowly at first and then more rapidly.

I am also a believer in an integrated treatment approach to autism.

When enough people care about autism or diabetes or global warming, it helps everyone, even if only a tiny fraction actively participate.

There has never been a verified scientific report that chelation therapy, a gluten-free diet, or anything else can cure autism.

Don’t think that there’s a different, better child ‘hiding’ behind the autism. This is your child. Love the child in front of you. Encourage his strengths, celebrate his quirks, and improve his weaknesses, the way you would with any child. You may have to work harder on some of this, but that’s the goal.

My first memory – at about four – was of numbers. The doctors who study me think a combination of mild autism and seizures I had when I was three have made me experience numbers the way I do.

Back then, people thought if you could talk you didn’t have autism. I was just seen as this slightly odd child. I saw another therapist aged 12, and another in my early 30s.

My son was diagnosed with autism. He’s OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn’t talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you how much it costs.

There tends to be a lot of autism around the tech centers… when you concentrate the geeks, you’re concentrating the autism genetics.

Autism spectrum disorders are linked to other problems: Most of the people we see in our Asperger clinic for adults also suffer from clinical levels of depression.

The genetics of autism are real, but there are also environmental triggers.

I’ve been interested in autism since I’ve known about it, which is more or less since I’ve been writing.

Among both individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger and their parents, many are superfast at spotting details. You hardly have time to get the experimental materials out on the table before they’ve spotted the target.

Autism is a very serious condition.

If you have autism in the family history, you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.

Autism is a complicated illness, and children with a variety of treatments and non-treatments show improvement over time, which is all to the good.

It may be true in the case of autism that if you start off with a deficit in terms of empathy or mind reading, you’ve just got more time to devote to understanding the world by systemizing.

I’ve learned that it comes in so many different shapes and sizes, and that communities with autism are extremely supportive of one another.

Non-fiction is a big responsibility. Rationality. Facts. The urgent need to reflect some small aspect of reality. But fiction is a private autism, a self-referential world in which the writer is omnipotent. Gravity, taxes, and death are mere options, subject to the writer’s fancy.

Heaven, for me, is one focused project – it’s like a weird form of autism.

Autism doesn’t seem to have a seasonal component, unlike some forms of depression.

Autism is part of who I am.

I did want to acknowledge and confirm the fact that my son does, indeed, have an autism diagnosis.

People with autism flourish in domains where the information is consistent and predictable, and struggle most in domains where the information is ambiguous and unlawful.

One big question that’s come up is: Has autism increased on the mild side of things? I don’t think so – they’ve always been here. Some of this is increased detection.

Parents of recovered children, and I’ve met hundreds, all share the same experience of doubters and deniers telling us our child must have never even had autism or that the recovery was simply nature’s course. We all know better, and frankly we’re too busy helping other parents to really care.

Jenny McCarthy has used her celebrity and sex appeal to attract attention to autism. And while no one questions McCarthy’s determination and passion, many scientists have debunked her anti-vaccine message and her claims that a gluten-free diet can provide a cure.

In the person with autism, the brain may already be seeing the part and be less distracted by the whole, and in the person without autism the brain may have to set aside its picture of the whole to analyze the detail.

Emotion-enabled wearable glasses can help individuals who are visually impaired read the faces of others, and it can help individuals on the autism spectrum interpret emotion, something that they really struggle with.

I have a son, and my son has autism. There’s certain things that I deal with that a lot of people don’t deal with.

I have two young children with autism. What could they have ever done to deserve that? What kind of a God allows the innocent to suffer? It’s a mystery. Yet still, I believe in God.

There is a direct correlation between gardening and mental health, not just to maintain good mental health but to repair it as well – that’s anything in the gamut from depression to serious brain damage, schizophrenia or autism.

We might want to figure out what are the positive effects of autism – mild cases.

My heart bleeds, goes out for families with kids with autism.

Autism currently affects one in 88 children in the U.S., and its prevalence continues to rise. That’s why it’s important to help organizations like Autism Speaks raise awareness and funds to support families and individuals impacted by it.

Autism does exist on a spectrum, and there are so many manifestations of it, so many kinds of expressions of it. And every case is particular.

I’ve always thought of myself as a cattle-handling specialist, a college professor first; autism is secondary.

An art project, a hands-on science experiment, or a special field trip can transcend textbooks and flash cards. No one knows this better than those teaching students with autism.

Information on how to heal autism and how to possibly delay vaccines or prevent autism shouldn’t come from me. It should come from the medical establishment.

It is possible that by studying autism we’ll learn about the nature of talent. Supposedly there’s no connection between scientific talent and autism, but if we look closely, we find a very basic connection.

The position of Autism Speaks has been for quite awhile that we need to find out what’s happening. We know there’s a genetic component, and there’s an environmental trigger, and until we get to the bottom of what’s happening, no one knows what causes autism.

Autism is a neurological disorder. It’s not caused by bad parenting. It’s caused by, you know, abnormal development in the brain. The emotional circuits in the brain are abnormal. And there also are differences in the white matter, which is the brain’s computer cables that hook up the different brain departments.

From a scientific standpoint, Aspergers and autism are one syndrome. Aspergers is part of the autism spectrum, not a separate disorder.

A friend of mine works for Autism Speaks. It’s an amazing cause that is making a real difference in the lives of so many people.

A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised trial of boys with autism found that two to three servings of cruciferous vegetables a day improves social interaction, abnormal behaviour and verbal communication – within a matter of weeks.

Autism doesn’t have to define a person. Artists with autism are like anyone else: They define themselves through hard work and individuality.

What makes autism different is the history of neglect into the disorder. It’s remained such a mystery that science has been very slow to address it.

My brother was diagnosed with autism at age 2. At the time, I was young, so I didn’t really understand what it all meant. The doctors thought there was a possibility my brother wouldn’t be able to speak – he was diagnosed on the severe end of the spectrum.

Many people with autism struggle with reading nonverbal cues and acting on them. When you lose that ability to understand and process nonverbal cues, you’re at a huge disadvantage socially.

I’m on the autism spectrum. I don’t usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.

Corner one of the hundreds of doctors who specialize in autism recovery, and they’ll tell you stories of dozens of kids in their practice who no longer have autism. Ask them to speak to the press and they’ll run for the door. They know better.

If you give us a safe vaccine, we’ll use it. It shouldn’t be polio versus autism.

One out of six women are toxic with mercury. Mercury comes out of coal plants and chlorine plants. I am toxic, I deal with symptoms, children are born with, you know, autism – there is an epidemic in this country. This is like, the air that we breath.