Imagine you are trapped in your own world, hardly able to communicate with others or communicate with them at all. Your basic senses are painful to use or to distant for you to react to. That is the life of a person with autism. Autism is a biological disorder of the brain. It impairs ones communication and social skills.
             Autism is a fairly common but devastating disorder. It is the third most prevalent developmental disability behind mental retardation and cerebral palsy. Autism occurs once in every 500 births in a ratio of five boys to every girl. There are over 400,000 people affected by Autism today. It is more common than multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and childhood cancer. Yet, autism receives only 5% of the research funding. That's less than other less widespread diseases.
             Autism has quite a range of effects on a person. It is considered a developmental disorder affecting language, communicative, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and fine and gross motor skills. Autistic people can be affected in all these ways, but not always. Some may only be affected in one or maybe two ways. Since it has such a wide variety of affects, autism is described as being mild or severe depending on how a person is affected.
             When an autistic's language and communication is affected it is very difficult for them and others. They may repeat words instead of speaking in normal sentences. They may use hand gestures instead of verbal requests. But maybe the most devastating of all is having not being able to speak at all. Temple Grandin is an Assistant Professor at Colorado State with a Ph.D. in Animal Science with Autism. She overcame her handicap with much intervention at a young age. She used to lack the ability to speak. She described it this way. "Not being able to speak was utter frustration. If adults spoke to me I could understand everything they said, but I could not get my words out. It was like a big stutter." ...