MIT study uncovers possible genetic link for ADHD, autism

[SheilaT]

1. For some time now

there's been a lot of talk about the mating habits of individuals who are on the very upper end of the autism spectrum, whose children more overtly have autism.

My (now ex) husband was always a bit removed from others. I was never as strongly that way myself, but sort of there. Our oldest son has Asperger's. Why am I not surprised?

What's most interesting is that we have a younger son who is as far from Asperger's as a person can be. From an extremely early age (I'm talking no later than 6 months) he tuned into other people in a way that totally astonished me. What I didn't fully understand was that it was the older son who was different, the younger son who was "normal".

I do know that Asperger's is relatively mild. And my son with it is not as strongly affected as some others. Were you to meet him you'd simply see a somewhat tall young man, totally bald because he happens to have alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss, who is clearly quite smart and a lot shy.

I do know some people with children with much more profound autism, and they inhabit a totally different world than I do.