"Inherited" can mean "genetic" or some other method of parent-child transmission (like learning) "Environmental" can include "parenting", but in this case the

"Inherited" can mean "genetic" or some other method of parent-child transmission (like learning) "Environmental" can include "parenting", but in this case the distinction is between "got it somehow from autistic-leaning parents" vs got from something else. Also, the claim that autism might be somehow learned from parents is extraordinary and not widely claimed or supported by existing evidence. It was a discredited theory of the past though, that "cold" parenting created austism.