50 Fun Facts About Autism

Julia, a four-year-old puppet with autism and a toy rabbit named Fluffster, joined which children's TV show in 2017?

Sesame Street gave the part to puppeteer Stacey Gordon, whose own son is on the autism spectrum, so that Julia would feel true to life.

Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar as Raymond Babbitt, an autistic savant who counts cards in Las Vegas, in which film?

Rain Man was the highest-grossing film of 1988, and Hoffman spent a year meeting autistic people to prepare for the role.

Claire Danes won an Emmy playing which autistic professor, famous for redesigning how cattle are handled?

Temple Grandin built herself a squeeze machine, or hug box, at 18 and has been a professor of animal science at Colorado State University since 1990.

Greta Thunberg has described her Asperger's diagnosis with which word, usually heard in comic-book films?

A superpower is how Thunberg describes it, while also saying that Asperger's limited her before she began her school strike at 15.

Autcraft, a server founded by a Canadian father in 2013 as a safe haven for autistic children, runs on which video game?

Minecraft was a favourite of many autistic children who met bullying on public servers, so web developer Stuart Duncan built them a moderated world of their own.

Autistic British artist Stephen Wiltshire draws entire cities from memory after a single short ride in what?

A helicopter flight of just twenty minutes over New York was enough for Wiltshire to draw a nineteen-foot panorama of the city.

In the Netflix series Atypical, autistic teenager Sam Gardner is fascinated by Antarctica and which animals?

Penguins calm Sam so much that he recites the four Antarctic species aloud whenever he feels overwhelmed.

Elon Musk told viewers he has Asperger's while hosting which long-running American comedy show in 2021?

Saturday Night Live gave Musk the stage for the announcement, and a year later he said social cues were not intuitive to him growing up.

The word autism, coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Self is the meaning of the Greek autos, and Bleuler first used his new word for the inward withdrawal he saw in patients with schizophrenia.

In the Korean drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo, autistic lawyer Woo Young-woo compares her cases to which animals?

Whales are her special interest, and the rookie attorney's habit of explaining life through them often baffles colleagues at her Seoul law firm.

Freddie Highmore plays Shaun Murphy, a young autistic surgeon with savant syndrome, in which American medical drama?

The Good Doctor is a remake of a 2013 South Korean series of the same name, and it ran on ABC for seven seasons.

Who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a mystery narrated by teenage maths whiz Christopher Boone?

Mark Haddon has said the 2003 novel is less about Asperger's than about difference, being an outsider and seeing the world in a surprising way.

Autistic savant Daniel Tammet, who recited 22,514 digits of pi, says he learned which language in a single week?

Icelandic was the challenge, and after a week of study Tammet gave an interview in the language on the television programme Kastljós.

Blind autistic musician Derek Paravicini can replay almost any tune after one hearing on which instrument?

Piano came early for Paravicini, who was born at 25 weeks and began playing at the age of two when his nanny gave him an old keyboard.

Which American child psychiatrist described eleven children in a landmark 1943 paper that first defined autism?

Leo Kanner also set up the first child psychiatry clinic in the United States, and he named the condition in his paper early infantile autism.

Hans Asperger, whose name was long attached to a form of autism, studied and worked in which European capital?

Vienna's university children's clinic was where Asperger worked when he published his 1944 paper, which went largely unnoticed in the English-speaking world until the 1980s.

Which British medical journal retracted, in 2010, a fraudulent 1998 paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism?

The Lancet withdrew the paper after reporter Brian Deer exposed it, and its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, was struck off the UK medical register.

Studies of which group of children, begun in 1977, showed that autism is largely inherited?

Twins who are identical share all their DNA, so comparing them with fraternal pairs let researchers estimate how much of autism comes down to genes.

A discredited 1950s theory blamed autism on unloving mothers, comparing them to which household appliances?

Refrigerators lent their name to the refrigerator mother theory, also called Bettelheim's theory, which wrongly blamed autism on a lack of maternal warmth.

Hand-flapping, rocking and finger-snapping are examples of which repetitive behaviour common in autistic people?

Stimming is thought to help people calm themselves and shut out sensory overload, which is one reason it is so hard to suppress.

Asperger syndrome stopped being a separate diagnosis in 2013 with the publication of which American psychiatric manual?

DSM-5 folded Asperger syndrome, classic autism and a catch-all category called PDD-NOS into one diagnosis, autism spectrum disorder.

Donald Triplett, the first person ever diagnosed with autism, lived and died in the town of Forest in which US state?

Mississippi was home to Triplett, labelled Case 1 in 1943, who went on to work as a banker and lived to the age of 89.

Which term describes repeating words or phrases just heard from someone else, a trait seen in many autistic children?

Echolalia joins the Greek words for echo and speech, and the repetition may come at once or be delayed until long after the words were heard.

Grunya Sukhareva described autistic traits in the 1920s, long before Western researchers, in which Soviet city?

Moscow was where Sukhareva founded a sanatorium school for children and wrote up her cases almost two decades before the famous Western papers.

Which British psychiatrist coined the term Asperger's syndrome and helped found the National Autistic Society?

Lorna Wing turned to autism research after realising her own daughter Susie was autistic, and her work showed that autism forms a spectrum.

Which actress, who played a mermaid in the 1984 film Splash, was diagnosed with autism as a child?

Daryl Hannah was nearly institutionalised on medical advice, but her mother instead took her to Jamaica for a change of scene.

Clay Marzo, an athlete with Asperger's featured in the film Just Add Water, is a professional in which sport?

Surfing made Marzo a teenage star: at 15 he became the first to score two perfect 10s in National Scholastic Surfing Association history.

Which Springwatch presenter explored his own diagnosis in the 2017 BBC documentary Asperger's and Me?

Chris Packham was diagnosed in 2005, in his forties, and the film went on to win a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for best single documentary.

Bella Ramsey was diagnosed as autistic while filming the first season of which drama opposite Pedro Pascal?

The Last of Us star Ramsey has said they would not be an actor without autism, crediting a sharp eye for micro-expressions and social cues.

Bruno the Brake Car, an autistic character living on the North Western Railway, belongs to which children's franchise?

Thomas & Friends cast a ten-year-old autistic actor from Toronto, Chuck Smith, to voice Bruno for North American audiences.

Autistic actress Chloé Hayden won an AACTA Award playing Quinni in which Australian teen drama on Netflix?

Heartbreak High's Quinni is autistic too, and Hayden, who was diagnosed at 13, first found an audience on social media.

Which animation studio made the 2020 short Loop, about a non-speaking autistic girl sharing a canoe with a chatty boy?

Pixar cast Madison Bandy, who is herself non-speaking and autistic, as Renee, and recorded her voice at home to keep her comfortable.

Billy Cranston, an autistic teenage superhero played by RJ Cyler, appears in a 2017 film reboot of which franchise?

Power Rangers has Billy meet his future teammates in detention, where he lands after experimenting with explosives.

In My Name Is Khan, Shah Rukh Khan plays a man with Asperger's who crosses America to meet which figure?

The President becomes his goal after his wife sarcastically tells him to go and clear his name in person, an instruction he takes literally.

Which actor plays Christian Wolff, an autistic accountant auditing the books of dangerous criminals, in The Accountant?

Ben Affleck's character hides behind aliases borrowed from great mathematicians, and he returned to the role for a sequel in 2025.

In the documentary Life, Animated, autistic Owen Suskind learns to communicate through his love of which studio's films?

Disney stories gave Owen a way to make sense of the world, and the documentary is based on a book by his father, the journalist Ron Suskind.

Which word, also a nuclear power term, describes an autistic person's intense reaction to being overwhelmed?

Meltdown episodes may involve screaming or crying, and they can often be prevented by removing whatever is causing the distress.

A green lanyard for people with hidden disabilities such as autism shows which flower, first used at Gatwick Airport?

A sunflower was chosen to stand for confidence, growth and positivity, and more than three million of the lanyards have been handed out worldwide.

Hyperlexia, a trait found in some autistic children, is a surprisingly early ability to do what?

Reading words without being taught, typically before the age of five, defines hyperlexia, yet the same children may find speaking far harder.

Autistic Pride Day uses which rainbow-coloured symbol, first designed as the logo of the group Aspies For Freedom?

An infinity sign in rainbow colours stands for diversity with infinite variations and possibilities, and Amy and Gwen Nelson designed it in 2004.

Autism rights activists would rename World Autism Awareness Day by swapping the word awareness for which alternative?

Acceptance is the word these campaigners favour because, they argue, it tackles prejudice against autistic people instead of simply spreading awareness.

In 2026 Mattel released an autistic version of which doll, with noise-cancelling headphones and a fidget spinner?

Barbie's autistic doll was developed with an autism advocacy network and also carries a tablet set up as a communication aid.

World Autism Awareness Day, designated by the United Nations in 2007, falls on the second day of which month?

April 2 was proposed by Qatar's representative, Moza bint Nasser, and the United Nations General Assembly adopted it with the support of every member state.

In the PECS method, created for autistic children in Delaware in 1985, a child asks for something by handing over what?

A picture of the wanted item is swapped for the real thing, and later stages teach children to build short sentences on a detachable strip.

Which unusual way of walking, if it continues past the age of three, is associated with autism in some children?

On tiptoes is how many toddlers start out, and most settle into a heel-to-toe step as they grow, so a check-up is advised only if it persists.

Which British Oscar-winning actor said in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Asperger's in his seventies?

Anthony Hopkins shared the news in an interview with The Desert Sun, saying the diagnosis had come three years earlier.

Which Scottish singer, a viral sensation after a 2009 TV audition, revealed in 2013 that she has Asperger's?

Susan Boyle learned in 2012 that an earlier label had been a misdiagnosis, and that she is on the autism spectrum with an above-average IQ.

Vernon Smith, who attributes parts of his personality to Asperger's, shared a 2002 Nobel Prize in which field?

Economics honoured Smith, alongside Daniel Kahneman, for turning laboratory experiments into a tool for studying how markets work.

Which country's army runs a programme training autistic adults to analyse aerial and satellite photos?

Israel exempts autistic teenagers from mandatory military service, but the Ro'im Rachok programme, founded in 2013 by two Mossad veterans, lets them train and serve.

Armani Williams became the first driver openly diagnosed on the autism spectrum in which American racing series?

NASCAR's Xfinity Series and Truck Series have both seen Williams race, after he finished seventh in the ARCA truck standings as a teenager in 2016.