Not sure if I can trust Autism Speaks, but a brain injury sounds like it would make sense...for low-functioning autism. And then I go down to the comments section to find numerous paranoid mothers. Autism Speaks has been humorously named as the "Establishment of parents inconvenienced by [low-functioning] autism". And all of the "autism activists" are on the other side of the ignorance spectrum
They insist that autism is a glorious difference that autistic people contribute to the global community and blah blah blah, and that what people ought to do is "tolerate/accept/accommodate" it and will gouge your eyes out if you suggest a cure. The problem? All of the people in this little movement are either high-functioning or have Asperger's. They completely ignore low-functioning people and throw them by the wayside so that they can get their entitlement, even though other people might need it more. I myself made straight As in high school, I don't need a pity party.
And during my depression around the time I first joined CF, I thought that as an Aspie myself I just "had" to go and join them, even though I didn't want to. I wanted to be a person, not a superhuman or a subhuman.
That's the problem with ASDs--according to the rest of the world you're either a super-genius or a "barely there", permanently-immature person. I'm neither one of those things, I'm just a person with a few quirks.
I will say that my twin brother and I were born several weeks early, though, and that could have done something since we were hospitalized for months afterwards. We also had low birth weights (2 pounds, 12 ounce for him and 2 pounds 4 ounces for me!
) to this day I'm still a bit underweight and scrawny. Apparently having a higher birth weight can lead to an increased intelligence quotient, but I was called smart a million times despite my meager weight, so...
So while there was probably some cause, it certainly wasn't preventable since the people in my family really don't act like Aspies at all--it's just my brother and myself. Although I don't see how living a hurricane zone or being raised in a Romanian orphanage has anything to do with autism. As Sabertooth said, maybe a number of higher-functioning children are being "moved down on the spectrum" by some vaccines (besides MMR), since those paranoid moms in the comments section were literally saying "I've seen it with my own eyes! My child walked and talked and then he/she regressed!" And since Autism Speaks tends to lump all types of ASDs together (and maybe scares people into thinking that it's all low-functioning) then I can understand their fears.
I just think that the main thing needs to be the idea that autism is a spectrum. Asperger's is probably at the "higher end", and it comes with a number of problems that "regular autistic people" don't have. Unfortunately some idiots at the DSM decided to lump it all together and so now they tell parents "Your child is AUTISTIC!" and scare them or confuse them. I'm not "AUTISTIC!" (in the sense that I'm one of those people Autism Speaks attempts to help parents assist), but I do have an ASD. It's just not that bad.