Autism: False Words and False Hope Autism is a childhood disease where the child is in a private world of their own. A description of an autistic child by her mother is: We start with an image---a tiny, golden child on hands and knees, circling round and round a spot on the floor in mysterious self- absorbed delight. She does not look up, though she is smiling and laughing; she does not call our attention to the mysterious object of her pleasure. She does not see us at all. She and the spot are all there is, and though she is eighteen months old, an age for touching, tasting, point