Autism Spectrum Disorder
Somewhere… in a hidden corner of the brain’s map, something happens that no scanner can capture, and no scientific chart has fully explained yet.
It is not poor parenting… not a cold mother, nor an absent father, nor a glowing screen that kept the child sitting too long. All these lies have long been erased from the dictionary of science.
The truth?
The truth is that it is complex. Part of it is written in the genetic code—in a sequence of genes no one chose—and another part may be influenced by environmental conditions: toxins in the air, infections in a small, developing body, or perhaps a silent event in the mother’s womb, while brain cells were still reshaping the map of perception, senses, and attention.
Scientists say that in these children, certain brain areas function differently.
Unbalanced levels of serotonin—the chemical responsible for mood, calmness, and regulating behavior—seep into the background. Neurons communicate in a language unlike the one we expect. Signals are sent and received, but on a different frequency.
And in the laboratories… researchers uncover altered genes, like keys missing small notches, unable to open doors as they should. Genes responsible for growth, for cell-to-cell communication, for building bridges within the brain… when disrupted, they change how sounds are processed, how faces are understood, how spaces are perceived, and even how touch, light, and noise are experienced.
But… for now, these remain hypotheses—signs along the road, not certainties at the end of it.
What is certain, written in the ink of science with no doubt, is that the mother is not the cause.
Nor the father.
Nor the hardships of life.
Nor the parenting style.
And from our position as occupational therapists, we do not ask “Why did this happen?” but rather “How can we help?” We search for pathways where light can enter, reshape the environment, strengthen the senses that need support, and soothe those that cry out for relief.
This is how we redraw the boundaries of the world—to make it kinder, more understandable, and more compassionate for those who experience life on a different wavelength.
All of this is the blend of diversity and difference that shows us what autism spectrum disorder truly is.