'''Autism''' is a neurological disorder, characterized by inability to interact socially; linguistic disability; intense, narrow interests; and repetitive behaviors. These are called stims or stimming. They include walking on tiptoes, flapping of hands, staring at objects for a prolonged period of time, oral fixation, spinning in circles, and other repetitive activities. Other signs include lack of eye contact, playing alone, lack of words, or in the case of Asperger's syndrome, big possessing a large vocabulary and intense knowledge of specialized areas but a lack of social skills or inappropriate behavior. It is usually detected by the time a child is four years old but in some people's cases, autism go goes unnoticed into adulthood. There are many intelligent and talented autistic individuals.<ref>Temple Grandin, "Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism" amazon link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307275655/ref=wl_it_dp/103-3432247-4184629?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1CWNFSEUCIXQL&colid=49VN3HJC5OQK</ref>
Diagnoses of autism has increased from 1:10,000 in 1988 to 1:166 people today. Some estimates are as high as 1 in 150 people <ref>http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/faq_prevalence.htm</ref>, and it has been rising. Among boys, 1 in 94 has the disorder. In New Jersey, which has the highest rate in the nation, 1 in every 60 boys has autism and 1 in every 94 children is affected.
Some parentsIncreasingly, politicians and a few fringe researchers cite it is being shown that a [[mercury]] preservative used in [[vaccines]], thimerosal, as is the cause of injury in many recipients, including a cause of increase in autism rates. <ref>[http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:952MmAWeCOsJ:www.jpands.org/vol8no1/geier.pdf+jpands&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines,Neurodevelopment Disorders, and Heart Disease in the United States]</ref> Thimerosal is a inorganic form of mercury that was widely used as a preservative, but since FDA and CDC action in 1999 and 2000 thimerosal usage in vaccines has been either removed or lessened to around 0.01% in [[vaccines]] that still use it, including influenza and DT vaccines. This translates to around 25 [[micrograms]] per a 0.5mL dose. Humans in Vaccine proponents suggest that this small amount is not toxic, but they do not account for the US generally absorb between 3.9 and 21 micrograms accumulation of mecury per day. It has been generally accepted that there is no connection between vaccines mercury in an infant and autismoften use toxicity measures based on full grown adults. <ref>http://www.fda.gov/Cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t3</ref><ref>http://enhs.umn.edu/hazards/hazardssite/mercury/mercdose.html</ref><ref>http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/vaccines.htm</ref>
Autism is a spectrum disorder which means there is a range in how it affects different people. There is the fragile x syndrome, Asperger's syndrome, pdd nos, mild autism, moderate autism, severe autism, and some [[idiot savants]]. Autistic children will not all act like the character portrayed in the movie ''[[Rain Man]]''. Nor are all autistic children uncaring or unable to show emotion, in fact many are very caring.