Autism is defined as a pervasive developmental disorder defined
by extreme unevenness of skill development that is manifest
before the age of 3 years, qualitative impairment in reciprocal
social interaction and in patterns of communication and by a
restricted stereotyped, repetitive, repertoire of interest and
activities as well as accompanying perceptually based learning
difficulties. There are 18 Lakh families in India with a child
who has 'Autism' or 'Pervasive Development Disorder'. Autism is
an information processing disorder for which the causes are not
known. But it is not a disease a child can catch, nor it is
something one can cause or create. Autism is also called a
spectrum Disorder because a child with autism will have many of
the characteristics as another child with autism but they will
also be affected in very different ways. Three main areas
affected by autism are: - Child has delayed language
acquisitions. He may respond to a question by repeating it
immediately, may repeat certain words out