There is an upward trend of rates in recent decades of autistic children. Since the Kanner`s initial description of autism (1943) the increase in rate has led to dramatic claims. Several factors complicate the interpretation of the apparent increase, including changes in diagnostic practice, earlier diagnosis, increased awareness of the disorder, issues of study design and case ascertainment. A common source of confusion has been the tendency to mistake prevalence for incidence; prevalence refers to cases with the disorder at a specified time whereas incidence refers to the rate of new cases of the disorder within a period of time. The undiscovered cause of autism is the focus of many studies today. In order to cope with the stressful situation, it is very important for parents of autistic children to find some explanation for their child`s developmental disorder. The pace of research has increased dramatically in recent years. A lot of studies have focused on bringing together work from diverse areas such as psychological and brain mechanisms and the social deficit of autism. Despite the collaborative studies on diagnosis, genetics, psychopharmacology, treatment and neuroimaging, however, much is left to do. This study involved mothers and fathers of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Three focus groups were formed. The interview was conducted in an informal and natural way where respondents were free to give their own views. Members of groups described feelings of sadness and anger, but they were eager to help their children. It seems that the etiology explanation from parents` point of view is connected with nature-nurture problem.

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There is an increase of cases with autism spectrum disorder each year. The truth is that tens of thousands parents face a tremendous phase when they understand what autism is. Autism and autistic children are the focus of many studies in the last decades, but the focus is mainly on the children or the parents of these children. What happens with grandparents of autistic children? They suffer twice. They suffer for the grandchild and for their own son or daughter. In addition, maybe they blame themselves for that inherited “bad” gene that caused the disorder. To go further they maybe feel useless because of their age, their conditions or even their missing information. One of the biggest challenges in providing services to people with an autism spectrum disorder is that they need help 24 hours per day. Not only the grandparents, but even all the other members of the family can help a lot. This study is focused on grandparents`s point of view. What is autism and what does it mean for them to have an autistic grandchild? During the interviews the participants raised some important issues. To have grandchildren with autism is not easy, but at least grandparents are willing to help anyway. The important is that an autistic child feels the presence of everyone.