Hey there. Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. This is the place where we discussed the questions that matter the most to you.

And today, we decided we're going to do something a little bit different. We want to continue a conversation that I thought was really important based on a listener named Victoria.

She had called in to ask about autism.

She was very clear.

She said she just wanted the facts.

And for that, we did an episode with autism researcher, Dr. Matthew Lerner.

And he reminded us to put this moment into important perspective.

April is Autism Acceptance Month,

but as the autistic people and families that I work with every day, say, you know, every day is autism acceptance day in my life. So I'm

hoping that, you know, we can keep having these conversations even beyond April. And that made me

realize that, look, this isn't just a one-episode conversation.

This should be a longer-term conversation.

In fact, Victoria had even more questions, especially when it comes to her 14-year-old autistic son, Mason.

What should families understand about how support needs can change as autistic kids grow into teens and young adults?

What does happen? How do support needs change when autistic kids grow into teens and young adults?

To dig into this specifically, we wanted to bring in someone who not only studies this, but is living it.

I was diagnosed with what was then called Asperger syndrome coming up on 20 years

ago now. So I have this whole schick of, I don't do research per se, I do me search, and if the rest

of humanity benefits, all the better for it. That's Dr. Joshua Ambar. He's a public health professor

at Arizona State University.

He researches autism.

He specifically researches how young people with autism transition into adulthood.

...