Is Autism hereditary?

Is Autism hereditary?

In my mind absolutely yes, but not in every case.

Time after time, I meet an autistic child that has an autistic brother or sister, or a parent of an autistic child that displays clear signs of autistic spectrum disorder, often undiagnosed.

Can this be coincidence? I really don’t think it is. I see signs of Asperger syndrome in my own close family. This was what originally led me to consider the possibility of a hereditary factor.

Daily, I receive messages on my blog and on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/adultswithautism from a recently diagnosed Aspergian parent, that saw the signs in themselves after their child had been diagnosed.

Here are a just a few of the many personal accounts that people have posted on my blog and YouTube channel:

“My dad has ASD he doesn’t know it, but I am a 110% sure that he has it. He matches all the symptoms. Like myself.”

“wasn’t till i started having autistic children before anyone could tell me what i had”

“My dad is an adult Aspie, only recently diagnosed. My brother is 19 now and just identified as on the spectrum”

“my son was diagnosed with autism at 19, I began to recognize it in myself, my husband and other son”

So this would seem to rule out the idea that in these instances, autism is caused by the MMR vaccination. Although advocates for that theory may still say that all their children could be affected by autism, having had the vaccination. But it would not explain the thousands of cases across the world where autism is present in both parent and child.

I’m sure that there are medical professionals researching this and I am convinced that the evidence will confirm my observations.

Steve