Borat ...very good , you made me laugh , and how true too

B-Cohen has zero chance of ever adding anything to the Vaccine\Autism mystery unless he looks in the right place .
Which of course he is well paid to not do !

Further to my original comment, and in view of the other interesting comments subsequently posted. I should also tell you all that my grandson's secondary school leaving certificate contained a pass-in MATHS!! He is now studying at college.

We are all so proud of him, because he has applied himself to achieve academically, in spite of his profound problems with cognitive perception, which are life long. We have never 'nannied' him or provided any extra subject tuition. HE is the person who must live his life and he must find his own ways to adapt and cope.

Please have faith in your autistic children, whatever their abilities. Encourage their independence and boost their self esteem.

My 10 year old nephew has Asperger's and struggles with Maths.

Both his parents didn't finish their High School Certificate (Secondary School-left school around 16 yrs of age)and are not Mathematicians.

Are there any studies that show a diverse range of people? Or do they [the researchers] become very selective "cherry picking" certain people to prove their theory/idea?

Elizabeth Gillespie

Unless the autism is mild, it will very likely affect all skills including math skills. So if the autistic people tested were more affected, then it's no surprise that math skills did not show up.

What's most telling is the study showing fathers and grandfathers of people with autism have strong math skills. This gives an indication of what the next generation would have excelled at, had autism not occurred.

My son has always been poor in math.

Research conclusions (from above):-
"Additionally, there was no relationship between the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the SQ, or skills and interest in mathematics and mechanical reasoning."

This is a very interesting piece of research, with wide reaching implications for both the autism community and the public perception of autism as a 'condition'.

I have never subscribed to the slightly weird hypotheses and experiments of Simon Baron-Cohen, which involved, amongst other things, wiring up the heads of tiny babies in order to prove that autism is an inherited disposition. Nor do I 'swallow' all that romantic nonsense about all autistic persons somehow being 'gifted' scientifically and mathematically.

Yes, some autistic persons ARE gifted intellectually and in other ways, but those persons who are struggling to bring up non verbal, disabled autistic children despair at such generalisations. Human diversity applies to autistic persons in much the same ways as to anyone else. But mostly, autism represents a lifetime struggling to achieve what most unaffected persons would regard as a 'normal' existence.

My own experiences with my autistic grandson, seem to 'back up' this new research. At 2-3 years old the little boy could read 'the Oxford Dictionary'. No one taught him to read. We only found out when he chanted the names of the horses in the Sun Newspaper racing section; (his dad liked a bet!). The educational psychologist who was eventually assigned to him by his nursery school, refused to believe my grandson could read, but she had to 'eat her words' when the little boy read her own psychology assessment back to her when sitting across the table. He read the notes upside down!!

So far so good you might say. WRONG!! My grandson may have been hyperlexic, (the proper name for this ability which is common in autistic children), but he was five years old before he could TALK!! We used his reading ability to 'programme' his speech.

As for maths, my grandson's numeracy abilities echoed his reading abilities and he could count up to thousands in his head instantly, a bit like the 'Rain Man'. In UK schools, mathematics and arithmetic are regarded differently. When my grandson went to secondary school, he was instantly put into a group of 'high flying' maths children. That did not last and he ended up after several 'demotions' in one of the poorest groups, not good for anyone's 'self esteem'. I had several sessions helping my grandson with his maths homework and soon realised the 'handicapps' he had. His very poor fine motor skills meant he could not reproduce geometry maths diagrams. As for algebra, there was no problem if a b or x could be substituted with a real number but 'pure' algebra like quadratic equasions? FORGET IT. Autistic persons cannot process purely abstract concepts.

The 'establishment' sources are presently attempting to 'normalise' autism in public perceptions. This is wrong and should be resisted by those of us who know only too well the realities associated with this condition.