What is autism?

What is the autism spectrum?

No two people are alike, and nowhere is that more true than on the autism spectrum. You may have someone who does not verbally communicate, doesn't socialize well, and has a low IQ score (which doesn't mean they're not intelligent, by the way). On the other hand, you might have someone who's extremely verbal, can "pass" when socializing, and is a genius. Both are equally autistic, but they fall on different ends of the autism spectrum. And most people fall along the continuum between the two. Because of this, autistic people are often referred to as being "on the spectrum."

In fact, there are spectrums of abilities within the autism spectrum itself. No two autistic people are affected in quite the same why, which is why you can't generalize specific information about one autistic person to another person - everyone is different.