Desenvolvimento e adaptabilidade de pessoas com transtorno autista na perspectiva evolucionista

people with autism have impairment in important areas of development such as reciprocal social interaction, communication skills and imaginative capacity. OBJECTIVE: the aim of this article is to present an update on the autism from the evolutionary background. METHOD: research sources were books and academic papers about current issues involving the development of people with autism and evolutionary theory. The online sources for research were: Scielo Sagepub BVSPsi and, in special, publications from 2000 onwards. The web portal Google Scholar was used for searching specific items, such as those listed among the references of other articles. DISCUSSION: through the presentation based on extensive arguments to a comprehensive review of the literature (mainly international and current), it was proposed to demonstrate that explanations about the presence of atypical behavior on a basis considering the dimension of human species allow us to take a more global view of the phenomenon (taking into account general aspects of development and autism). Furthermore, considering the history that each experience during development allows us to identify how each person updates the potential that has been produced by long of human evolution. CONCLUSION: It has been concluded that autism can be better understood if it is taken into account aspects of the phylogeny (survival value for species) and ontogeny (the history of each individual). In effect, this conception allows us to have a more holistic and complex understanding of autism and its relationship with human development.