This is the final paragraph of an article in the July 6th Scotland on Sunday about 20-year-old Dale Gardner, who was severely autistic as a child, and his mother, Nuala Gardner.
His mother is bursting with pride. When she first found out about Dale, part of her grieving process was to wonder if it would have been better if he had never been born. “But just look,” she says, “at the son I’ve got now.”
I’ve always been so glad I had Charlie, to hold in my arms when he was little, on tough days and glorious ones; to walk side by …read more

Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that seem to be involved in perceiving the intentions—the mental state—of another person. Mirror neurons are activated or “fire” both when we perform an action and also when we see that action being performed by someone else and it’s been hypothesized that there might be a dysfunction of the mirror neuron system in autistic persons. According to a 2006 article in Scientific American:
If the mirror neuron system is indeed involved in the interpretation of complex intentions, then a breakdown of this neural circuitry could explain the most striking deficit in people …read more