Dave Rubin believes there is an environmental component contributing to the rise in autism rates among children.

“Could it be what we're eating? Could it be what a pregnant woman is ingesting? Could it be the air we're breathing? Could it be the water we're drinking? So environmental factors.”

He argues that there is a plausible link between underlying inflammatory bowel disease and the development of autism.

“Is it possible that an underlying inflammatory bowel disease can interact with the brain and damage it? We don't know. But certainly in diseases like celiac disease where there is an allergic sensitivity to gluten in wheat, then the presenting features can be dementia or seizures or developmental re”

Autism is caused by a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental toxins, with Tylenol being a significant potential factor.

“And I believe autism comes from a gene, genetically vulnerable people, environmental toxin. And I think Tylenol is one of them.”

She maintains that non-speaking autistic individuals are intelligent and possess rich interior lives despite being labeled incompetent.

“So you are very much in there you're intelligent but be often because you can't speak people assume you can't think which is not fair and so many individuals who are non-speakers have been kind of deemed incompetent or have been taught unfairly like they're you know children and aren't understanding”

Non-verbal autistic individuals possess fully functioning minds and deserve to have their competence presumed even when they cannot communicate verbally.

“so a big part of the spelling community is we say presume competence like u these kids even though they might look like they're not paying attention or they might look like they're not understanding most likely they are.”

The dramatic rise in autism rates is likely caused by a combination of expanded diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, and advancing parental age, rather than a single factor.

“now some cases of autism do involve denovo mutations, but the majority of this increase seems to be explained by the increased awareness and expanded diagnostic definitions.”

Autism is a condition linked to early fetal brain development and genetics rather than environmental triggers or vaccines.

“what happens is you see the activation of genes in early fetal brain brain development and that sets into motion of progression but that full clinical expression of it doesn't happen until around 18 19 months of age”