Controversial New Movement: Autistic and Proud

 

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But a number of experts say his path might not be the answer for many others dealing with autism.

"You have to remember that this is a spectrum and you've got people who are quite high functioning and then you've got people who can't even begin to function and for whom we would love to have a cure to at least get them to a point where they would be able to function as well as the people in this movement," said Dr. Thomas Insel, from the National Institute of Mental Health.

But Kristina Chew also said she wouldn't change her severely autistic son Charlie if she could.

"We really try and understand him on his own terms," she said.

That is her advice for parents dealing with a child's autism diagnosis and feeling hopeless.

"Acceptance, to me, is the beginning of hope," Chew said. "I look at my son, even on the days, the most terrible, terrible days. I still knew that I love my son. That he was with us, and that he would be with us, and that the hope was really in him."