and when I was in grad school we studied the history of our field. There are absolutely horrific stories of kids who were actually deaf but diagnosed as retarded and placed in institutions, kids who had severe learning disabilities but were diagnosed as retarded and placed in institutions and kids who were most likely autistic but diagnosed as many other things and yes, placed in institutions.

The story everyone knows is Helen Keller's. Her parents had money and hired Anne Sullivan to be her tutor AFTER their family doctors strongly recommended that the Kellers place Helen in an institution. But that was rare; 99% of kids with disabilities like Helen were either allowed to 'mercifully' die as infants or were institutionalized.

The Kennedys had their daughter Rosemary lobotomized in an effort to 'control' her retardation and behavior. And if they hadn't been the notable family they were, no one would have known about this or thought it unusual. That was a very common practice. So was forced sterilization of the disabled.

One of my best friends from elementary school had a sister who had Down's Syndrome and her parents kept her at home until she was a teenager and then placed her in an institution. We had friends whose parents wouldn't let them go over to my friend's house to play because they were afraid of her sister and what she might do. It was highly unusual for her family to keep her as many years as they did in their home.

I had another friend who had a severely retarded brother who was immediately institutionalized at birth and everyone was told he had been a still birth. It was only many years later that my friend discovered she had a brother. Just like in Rainman. That movie was a lot more realistic than many people realize.

There were no sheltered workshops, zero employment opportunities and absolutely NO mainstreaming for kids with severe disabilities. So, most people had no idea how many of these kids there were.

People here on DU often get upset about Reagan closing mental institutions and the resulting influx of homeless people on our streets. But the movement to close the institutions began long before Reagan took office and was a direct result of advocates and families of the institutionalized speaking up and demanding better treatment for the disabled. Obviously, Reagan and his evil Republican cohorts went too far. But improving how we treated our disabled in this country was long overdue.

So seriously studying disabilities and looking for causation and treatment is a fairly new practice. My field is only about 40 years old. When you look at the history, it isn't at all surprising that we still don't know what causes autism. I know that frustrates parents but at least we take far better care of autistic kids than we used to.