The purpose of this article is to compare the theoretical knowledge with parents' declarations concerning their emotional experiences resulting from the fact of having a child with autism. Main effort was made to indicate factors that affect these experiences, giving them a positive or negative meaning. Understanding the experiences that the parents of children with autism are highly probable to come across is extremely important as it can contribute to designing better supporting system for such families. It can also enhance mothers' and fathers' life satisfaction and increase effectiveness of preventive measures against the burnout phenomenon.
Researches are still trying to figure out what is the real cause of autism. In the years several major concepts conceming patogenical mechanisms of this disease has not been determined. However, none of them turned out to be entirely good. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the concepts and select the ones that have been proven empirically.