Perhaps cliché, but nonetheless true, our story starts at the intersection of art and science. Founder Ami Klin, professor, psychologist, researcher, and neurodevelopmentalist-at-heart, was working with developmentally disabled patients. One in particular, Ben (pseudonym), sparked his curiosity. An incredibly smart, high-functioning adult, Ben managed a career in a very technical field while being significantly hindered in life with limited social development.
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.”