How to Teach Life Skills to Kids with Autism or Asperger's: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism (Unabridged‪)‬

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder (a "brain" condition) characterized by poor behavioral and social difficulties. This is a developmental condition that starts early in infancy and lasts for life. 

Autism spectrum disorder affects most facets of life. Cognitive (thinking and language) and social skills are usually impaired by growth relative to their disorder-free peers. Their motor skills (movement), however, evolve more traditionally.

Autism is characterized by severe and persistent impairments in several essential areas of development: mutual social contact and speech and actions as well as creativity. To be diagnosed with autism, behavioral signs must be present by age three in all of the regions named above. However, as parents also understand only during infancy that something is wrong, autism remains very difficult to diagnose before the age of 18 months. It is because the clinical signs used to make the diagnosis did not emerge clearly until that age.