If most of the autistic manifestations are genetically based, can we do something about it? Unfortunately, at present, no known procedure or medication can change genetic disorders.

If autism is environmentally induced, what factors promote the autistic manifestations? So far, mercury in the diet, from eating fish, has been implicated as an agent that might contribute to ASD. Could other environmental factors enhance the manifestation of ASD in a child who is genetically predisposed to it? Or is there something in our diet that is deficient during the critical fetal development like DHA which is a major building block of the brain architecture? (Because the fear of mercury in the fish, majority of pregnant woman avoided it, hence almost no DHA in their diet.)

Since social dysfunction is the most obvious feature in children with ASD, we should ask the question, "What is the most important step an infant should go through to acquire normal social skills?"

Everybody will agree that the newborn's first skill is how to look at the mother or father's face—the eyes in particular. An infant should practice how to look at the parent's face, and watch and listen to the voice and to the words being said.

When an infant looks at the parent's face, she is activating two important areas of the brain: the right middle Fusiform gyrus (Fusiform Face Area, FFA) and the inferior occipital cortex (Occipital Face Area, OFA). These face-sensitive areas of the brain can also be detected by an Event-Related-Potential electroencephalograhy and be reflected in N170 in adults, and in N290 and P400 in young children.

Studies done by Schultz, et al, have shown that autistic individuals display hypoactive FFA when looking at a human face. This could be the reason autistic children do not look at the face when one talks to them. Because they've seldom looked directly at their parent's eyes and face, this might be why their communication and language development is negatively affected.

Autistic children did not learn how to "read" their parents' facial expressions, also failing to feel the associated emotions, because as babies they failed to watch their parents' face and mouth movements. They also did not learn the meaning of words, which delayed their language development and cognition.