Moreover, studies have shown that it is one of the quickest growing developmental disorders; with a 10 % - 17% growth rate (Autism society, 2003). One percent of children in the U.S. population between the ages of 3-17 suffer from autism, with a higher prevalence in boys than girls. Furthermore, autism does not seem to vary according to race or ethnicity. It is racially universal (Folstein, 1999).
Perception.
An experiment performed by Johnson to test whether newborns preferred to view more complex patterns or whether this indicated that they inherited an inclination to social behavior. They had newborn children placed in a plain room (controlling for other distractions) and displayed three different complex figures; amongst them was a human face, a more complex figure to that, and a control simple patter. It was measured by the child's eye and head displacement. Research showed astonishing results, it assessed that children preferred to watch the human face indicating that children were innately (Johnson1991).
In contrast, a study that observed impairments face-recognition and objects among 2-year- old toddler who were autistic and those who were not. Experiment (1) showed that .
normally developed children were familiar with human faces though not monkeys. However, autistic children did not familiarize with either species.Therefore it can be distinguished that autistic children do have a form of social impairment (Chawarska, & Volkmar, 2007).
On the other hand another study performed by Dawson et. al performed an experiment that discovered that autistic children were superior to the children in the control group. They measured their results using an electroencephalograph. The study showed a familiar face vs. an unfamiliar face and a familiar object vs. a non-familiar object. (ERPs) scores for autistic children was significantly higher for object recognition, however, for face recognition they failed to see the difference.