Acknowledgement
We thank all the autistic individuals and their parents and guardians for agreeing to participate in the study. We also thank all the special schools for participating in our study. We thank the Karnataka Institute for DNA Research (KIDNAR), Dharwad and Shri B.M Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, BLDE (Deemed to be University), Vijayapura for their constant support throughout the research. This study was supported by Grant-in-Aid for research from the Department of Higher Education, Govt. of Karnataka, India (Grant No: Department of Higher Education, ED 15 UKV 2018, Bangalore, date: 12-13-2018).
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