Perhaps cliché, but nonetheless true, our story starts at the intersection of art and science. Through his work as a professor, psychologist and neruodevelopmentalist, Founder Ami Klin observed an incredibly smart, high-functioning adult with ASD that sparked his curiosity. Ben (pseudonym), managed a career in a very technical field while being significantly hindered in life with limited social development. Ben embodied the unique contributions that individuals with autism make in society through their own success and self-determination—the contributions that change the narrative of autism from one of disability to one of diversity and optimal outcomes.
At Yale, Ami developed research methodologies that would allow younger and younger children with autism to sculpt their reality, such that researchers could begin to understand how they were viewing the world and in turn, how this view would affect their development.
“Why are we missing them? Why can’t we get these little babies engaged and involved in the saga of reciprocal social interaction, which is the platform for brain development, and create a situation whereby the time they are three, they might still have the autism trait, but they are not developmentally disabled.”