STORY HIGHLIGHTS

New York (CNN) -- A milestone for 16-year-old Jaden Lake, who has autism, is sometimes as basic as a kiss.

He's the son of Canadian Parliament member Mike Lake, who traveled to New York this week in the shadow of the United Nations General Assembly to raise awareness about autism spectrum disorders, believed to affect roughly 1 in 88 children in the United States.

Lake and his wife, Debi, say it's often the small victories that count most when raising the eldest of their two children.

"When he was 11, I remember my wife phoning me and saying, 'Jaden just kissed me for the first time,'" Lake said.

The revelation came when Debi had been teaching their son to blow, using a straw she placed in his mouth.

"She noticed that when she pulled it out," a kissing sound sprung from his puckered lips, he said.

"She used that to teach him how to kiss."

Autism is defined as one group of developmental problems within autism spectrum disorders, which surface in early childhood and come with varying degrees of severity, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

It's not clear what causes the disorder and there is no known cure. And though its overall prevalence has been on the rise, it's also unclear whether that increase is a result of better detection or an increase in cases, or both.

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