Quote Originally Posted by Liffguard View Post
I thought the question of whether or not autism was predominantly genetic or environmental was still up in the air? I'm honestly not that well educated about autism so if anyone could fill me in that would be great. Cheers.
I'm not 100% sure on genetic, but it is definitely something that is present from birth. Autistic people are (by the nature of autism) far more susceptible to various environmental factors than most people. I'm talking about the social environment here, not the chemical environment. A large part of the "disorder" part of autism is communication problems; you need to know how to relate to them, which is sometimes very hard, but basically whether an autistic person has people capable of communicating effectively with them makes a world of difference in their development and emotional wellbeing.

A large part of the idea that it's something you develop later is the fact that the traits aren't always obvious right away, and often become more apparent as the child grows. One common sign is abnormal speech patterns or vocabulary, which of course isn't observable until they're 2 or 3 years old. Behavioural changes around puberty are pretty common in everyone, but they can be especially pronounced in autistic people. Maybe mental illnesses manifesting can make you act very differently (as with neurotypical people). Sometimes. It's a very very big umbrella, to be honest.

On the other end, you can't "cure" a person of autism, but autistic people (like anyone else) are capable of learning neurotypical behaviour. That doesn't make them less autistic, just good at applying their knowledge.