Re: there is hope for autism

My brother is what is now described autistic(although
probably closer to Asperger's syndrome), however 45 years ago
I'm not sure what the doctors thought he was. They did
however, tell my mother that he would never learn to talk,
read etc. and the best thing she could do was to
institutionalize him. He was deemed retarded and tested with
a very low IQ. My mother ignored the doctors and the schools
and worked with him with a tireless advocacy. He finally
talked at age 4 and eventually learned to read and
progressively became smarter and smarter until in his teens
some parts of his IQ tested near genius. His social ability
has always been stunted, but he was able to go to college and
get a master's in engineering and works at a job analyzing
government structures after disasters(buildings and
architecture were his obsession since a very very young age,
so this job is tailor-made for him). He is a loner but seems
content to be this way as interpersonal relations baffle him
and probably always will. My point is, autistic kids often
might seem hopeless, but they often have so many gifts as well
and often have big spurts in their development that don't
resemble the development of other kids. I would hope any
parent of such a child would advocate for them as my mother
did for my brother.