Research professionals/doctors at the MIND Institute strongly encourage families to test their autism spectrum child for fragile x syndrome.  Feel free to visit the websites www.fragilex.org and www.fraxa.org for enlightening information that could hold the key to why your son/daughter is "autistic". 

Looking back on our own family, I could see these characteristics in our mother and her father.  Our mother passed away this January at age 93 and her father passed away 40 years ago.  Nothing was known about autism at that time, but today we have better diagnostics.  We just learned that our mother's elderly sister (age 96) is also a carrier of fragile x as is her belated son.  The rest of the family has been encouraged to be tested for fragile x, since it will continue to be passed on in all future generations.

Our daughter was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and by sheer luck was given a referral to a geneticist at Bethesda Naval Hospital 20 years ago where she was diagnosed with fragile x syndrome.  The research in this field is exciting!  When a family has the proper diagnosis, they are better able to select treatments and educational placements to enhance their potential.  I hope this was helpful to all reading this.