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1908
Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler coined the term "autism" to describe a key feature of schizophrenia. It specifically described how people with schizophrenia disengage with the outside world. -
1926
Grunya Sukhareva writes a paper on children with autistic traits. She is the first person to look into the characteristics of autism. At first, she used the term the way Bleuler did, but after seeing other children with similar traits, decided to try to categorize it better. -
1938
Louise Despert reports 29 cases of childhood schizophrenia in children admitted to the New York State Psychiatric Institute that resemble today's classification of autism. -
1943
Leo Kanner publishes a paper detailing the lives of 11 children who shared autistic traits. This is when the term "infantile autism" is first used. The first person officially diagnosed with autism, Donald Triplett, was a part of this study. -
1944
Hans Asperger publishes a Nazi-funded study on autistic children aged 6-11. He noticed there was a genetic link in autism and was the foundation of the terms "high-functioning" and "low-functioning" autism. The disability "Asperger's" was named after him, but due to the fact that he was a Nazi, as well as his science was rooted in race hygiene, the term is not used anymore. -
1949
Leo Kanner proclaims the theory that autism is caused by "refrigerator mothers," used to describe parents who are cold and distant toward their children. -
1956
Leon Eisenberg publishes the paper "The Autistic Child in Adolescence," which describes the re-evaluation of 63 autistic children at the age of 15 after a follow-up period of nine years. -
1964
Bernard Rimland publishes "Infantile Autism: The Syndrom and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior," which flipped the "refrigerator mother" theory on its head, completely disproving it while discussing the neurological factors in autism. -
1964
Ole Ivar Lovaas, creator of LGBTQ conversion therapy, began working on his theory of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy for autistic children. Though ABA is the current standard of therapy for autistic people, some autistic people draw parallels to the therapy as a form of conversion therapy and have begun pushing against it, especially as some patients have post-traumatic symptoms post-ABA. -
1965
The Sybil Elgar School begins teaching and caring for autistic children, those of whom had never been able to go to an average school. -
1965
A group of allistic parents of autistic children have the first meeting of the National Society of Autistic Children, which is now known as the Autism Society of America. -
1970
Lorna Wing proposes the concept of autism spectrum disorders. She identified the "triad of impairment" as social interaction, communication, and imagination. -
1975
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is enacted to help protect the rights and meet the needs of children with disabilities, most of whom were excluded from school. -
1977
Susan Folstein and Micheal Rutter publish the first study of twins and autism. Their study finds that genetics are a very important factor for being autistic. -
1980
The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) includes criteria for a diagnosis of infantile autism for the first time. -
1990
Autism is included as a disability category in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), making it easier for autistic children to get special education services. -
1996
Temple Grandin writes "Emergence - Labeled Autistic," as a firsthand account of her life with autism and how she became successful in her field. -
1998
Andrew Wakefield publishes a paper in the Lancet suggesting that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine triggers autism. -
1999
The Autism Society adopts the Autism Awareness Puzzle Ribbon as the "universal sign of autism awareness." This logo has since been changed* due to the implications of being incomplete and having an association with autism hate groups. The new logo is a black or rainbow infinity symbol. *Harmful organizations such as Autism Speaks still use this symbol. -
2006
The president signs the Combating Autism Act to provide support for autism research and treatment. -
2006
Dora Raymaker and Christina Nicolaidis start the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) to provide resources for autistic adults and healthcare providers. -
2010
Andrew Wakefield loses his medical license and is barred from practicing medicine following the retracement of his paper on autism. The myth that the MMR vaccine causes autism is disproved and debunked by many scientists. -
2013
The DSM-5 combines Autism, Asperger's, and childhood disintegrative disorder into autism spectrum disorder (ASD). -
2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determines 1 in 54 children have been identified as having autism spectrum diagnoses. This number has grown since 2000 and is currently at 1 in 36. -
2023
Haitham Amal and his team finds a direct correlation between autism and the amount of nitric oxide (NO) in the brain. Their findings showed that autism indicators increase as NO levels rise, and when levels of NO decrease, so do symptoms.