According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, one autistic child is born every 20 minutes in the world, and the number is increasing by 20% every year. People pay more and more attention to autism. 39 netizens asked us if autism could be inherited? What is the cause of autism? With these questions in mind, this issue of Parenting Experts' Perspectives explores the relationship between autism and heredity.

Guests of this episode

Introduction: Zou Xiaobing, Chief Physician of Pediatrics Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat sen University

　　 Netizen consultation: There are two children at home. The eldest child is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with autism. The second child is only three months old. Is he likely to have autism? Do you want to intervene in the second child?

Most studies believe that it is closely related to gene (family) inheritance

Professor Zou pointed out that from the discovery of autism in 1943 to 1970, it was once thought that autism was brought up by parents, and the child suffered from autism because of their indifferent upbringing. However, later research completely denied this theory, and autism was not caused by parents' indifference or improper upbringing. Over the years, research has focused on chromosomes, genetics and genes. Autism is related to gene abnormalities or gene expression abnormalities. Parents can learn what genes, gene expression and gene regulation are from popular science knowledge. At present, research hotspots believe that autism is related to genes. We have found abnormal genes in children with autism, which means that their genetic genes are different from those of normal people. Although some children have not found abnormal genes, their gene expression may have problems. This gene expression has some relationship with the environment, It is because some environment affects the child's gene expression, which makes the child suffer from autism. Therefore, most people in the medical community believe that autism is congenital, not acquired.

For genetic factors, parents should prevent and intervene early

According to the above 39 netizens' questions, Professor Zou replied: "If the eldest child has autism, the probability of the second child suffering from autism is about 5% - 10%, which means that 90% - 95% of the second child may be a normal child. The second child's parents have noticed the problem of autism for the past three months, which is very important. From now on, parents should pay special attention to their children's behavior. They should be happy to pay attention to their children's behavior instead of worrying about it. They should be very happy to interact with him, communicate with him, talk to him, tease him, and show him something. Even if he does have some hereditary characteristics of autism, the child will get rid of this problem early because of the early help of parents, He may be fine in the future. "