In 1877, British doctor John Down used the term developmental retardation to describe conditions including what would be considered autism today. Also in 1877, German doctor Adolf Kussmaul defined the condition aphasia voluntaria - when people choose not to speak.
Clinicians who encountered autism in the 1950s and 1960s called it by many names. Among them were Kanner's syndrome (named after Leo Kanner), early infantile autism, hyperkinetic disease, and Heller's disease (based on 1908 description by Austrian educator Theodor Heller), also known as dementia infantilis.
Autism was originally described as a form of childhood schizophrenia and the result of cold parenting, then as a set of related developmental disorders, and finally as a spectrum condition with wide-ranging degrees of impairment. Along with these shifting views, its diagnostic criteria have changed as well.
In 1980, "infantile autism" was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and separated from childhood schizophrenia. By the late 1980s, the term in the DSM was changed to autism disorder and included a checklist of symptoms for diagnosing autism.
Kanner syndrome
The specific pattern of 'abnormal behaviour' first described by Leo Kanner is also known as 'early infantile autism'. Kanner made no estimate of the possible numbers of people with this condition but he thought that it was rare (Kanner, 1943).
During Medieval times, autistic people were considered to be possessed by demons. And, as recently as the 1960's, it was thought that autism was a psychological problem caused by uncaring mothers. For decades, autistic children were considered “self-absorbed”.
The word autism first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital adopted Bleuler's terminology “autistic psychopaths” in a lecture in German about child psychology.
A growing understanding of autism
In 1989, the first children in South Australia to be recognised as having Asperger syndrome were diagnosed by Autism SA.
At the time, treatment for autism was very limited. Most of these children were placed in institutions, far from the public eye, to live out their lives. Professionals commonly held the view that “refrigerator mothers” were responsible for the symptoms observed in these children.
1 in 100 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as of 2021. Autism prevalence has increased 178% since 2000. The country with the highest rate of diagnosed autism in the world is Qatar, and the country with the lowest rate is France.
Donald Gray Triplett (September 8, 1933 – June 15, 2023) was an American man known for being the first person diagnosed as autistic.
In 1943, Donald Triplett was the first-ever person to be formally diagnosed with autism. He died last week at the age of 89.
In 1943, Leo Kanner published the first systematic description of early infantile autism. He concluded that this was a neurodevelopmental disorder and that 'these children have come into the world with an innate inability to form the usual, biologically provided contact with people'.
In keeping with his perspective, the second edition of the DSM, the DSM-II, published in 1952, defined autism as a psychiatric condition—a form of childhood schizophrenia marked by a detachment from reality.
Absolutely! As a permanent disability, the NDIS provides funding for persons with ASD. In fact, autism spectrum disorder is the largest primary disability category for the NDIS. However, there are some conditions and not all individuals with autism spectrum disorder will be approved for NDIS funding.
So, why are the rates of autism increasing? Greater awareness. The primary reason that the rates of autism have increased is greater awareness of autism.
Parents of children with autism can apply for two payments, one that's means-tested and one that isn't. Once you receive your child's diagnosis it is worth calling Centrelink and asking what you are entitled to.
Autism is not an illness
It means your brain works in a different way from other people. It's something you're born with. Signs of autism might be noticed when you're very young, or not until you're older. If you're autistic, you're autistic your whole life.
If someone in your family has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), you may be more likely to have a child with ASD. ASD can look very different from person to person, so taking a careful family health history can be important for early diagnosis.
There is not just one cause of ASD. There are many different factors that have been identified that may make a child more likely to have ASD, including environmental, biologic, and genetic factors.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner described two related syndromes, later termed infantile autism and Asperger syndrome respectively.
In a pair of new reports — one focused on 8-year-olds and one on 4-year-olds — the CDC found that 1 out of every 36 children has autism. This is a significant increase from the 2021 estimate of 1 in 44, which was a big jump from 1 in 110 in 2006. This increase may sound scary.
The name for Asperger's Syndrome has officially changed, but many still use the term Asperger's Syndrome when talking about their condition. The symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome are now included in a condition called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is now the name used for a wide range of autism-like disorders.