People have always been interested in giftedness although the areas of performance in which one might be recognized as gifted are determined by the needs and values of the culture. There is no consensus with regards to what giftedness is. The restrictiveness of definitions of giftedness can be expressed in two ways:

1. It may limit the number of performance areas that are considered in determining eligibility for special programmes.
2. It may specify the degree or level of excellence one must attain to be considered gifted.

Giftedness is typically seen as multifaceted. Subjectivity of measurement is a problem in assessing giftedness as not every aspect of human life can be put into performance scales (e.g. art). One definition of giftedness is that gifted children are those who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance. Children capable of high performance include those

A psychiatric disorder refers to a significant dysfunction in an individual’s cognitions, emotions or behaviours that reflects a disturbance in the psychological, biological or developmental processes underlying mental functioning.

Comorbidity refers to two or more forms of psychopathology within the same person. For some, a second diagnosis requires symptom presentation without assumptions of causality (i.e. disorder one causes disorder two). For others, a second diagnosis requires the dysfunction to be significant enough to require treatment in addition to the primary condition.

There are several difficulties in assessing comorbidity in people with ASD:

• There is diagnostic overshadowing.
• There is often a different symptom presentation in children with ASD than in children without ASD.
• There are no clear systematic methods of identifying and treating comorbid psychiatric disorders across the autism spectrum.
• Many symptoms of psychopathology overlap with symptoms of ASD.
• ASD

Anti-social boys are less responsive to social reinforcement. Punishment only has short-term suppressive effects on behaviour. Punishment only seems effective in combination with positive reinforcement.

Coercion refers to a process during which aversive events are used to control the behaviour of another person (i.e. control behaviour using threats). A social action must be experienced by others as aversive and be used contingently to be part of the coercive process. An aversive event may serve any of the three functions:

1. An aversive behaviour by person 1 at time 1 leads to a positive outcome by person 1 at time 2 (i.e. reinforcement).
2. An aversive behaviour by person 1 at time 1 leads to a negative consequence by person 2 at time 2 (i.e. punishment).
3. An aversive behaviour by person 1 at time 1 leads to an aversive behaviour by person 2 at time

Autism spectrum disorder refers to disorders that meet criteria in two broad symptom categories:
-    Deficits in social communication and social interaction
There must be deficits in social-emotional reciprocity (1), non-verbal communication (2) and the development and maintenance of relationships (3). 
-    Restricted repetitive patterns of behaviour
There must be two of four symptoms present (i.e. motor movements; rituals; fixated interests; hyper/hypo response to sensory information). 
75% of the people diagnosed with autism also have an intellectual disability. However, this may be different in the DSM-5. The onset of ASD is during early development, around 2 years of age. Symptoms may not manifest until later in people with mild versions of the disorder or manifest earlier in people with more severe variants of the disorder.
The prevalence of autism is 1% and 4 times more males than females are diagnosed. The prevalence rate