Danielle Cadena Deulen examines her brother's condition:
I have seen my brother’s eyes very few times. Eye contact is brief—he tries to escape it whenever possible. Merely glancing at him is an offense. Looking at him intently could result in a tantrum. His tantrums are huge, vocal, physical attacks. He is the unstable element: eyes like lithium. Just look at it and it will explode.
60 Minutes recently explored how the iPad has helped autistic kids and adults who prefer to interact with machines rather than humans. Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen puts forth a somewhat controversial theory that adults who work in science and engineering may have an increased risk of having children with autism:
According to a theory he has been building over the past 15 years, the parents of autistic children, and the children themselves, have an aptitude for understanding and analysing predictable, rule-based systems — think machines, mathematics or computer programs. And the genes that endow parents with minds suited to technical tasks, he hypothesizes, could lead to autism when passed on to their children, especially when combined with a dose of similar genes from a like-minded mate.
The Dish 