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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
Leo Kanner proclaims the theory that autism is caused by "refrigerator mothers," used to describe parents who are cold and distant toward their children. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
The Sybil Elgar School begins teaching and caring for autistic children, those of whom had never been able to go to an average school. -
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. -
Lorna Wing proposes the concept of autism spectrum disorders. She identified the "triad of impairment" as social interaction, communication, and imagination. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
Temple Grandin writes "Emergence - Labeled Autistic," as a firsthand account of her life with autism and how she became successful in her field. -
Andrew Wakefield publishes a paper in the Lancet suggesting that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine triggers autism. -
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. -
The president signs the Combating Autism Act to provide support for autism research and treatment. -
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. -
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. -
The DSM-5 combines Autism, Asperger's, and childhood disintegrative disorder into autism spectrum disorder (ASD). -
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. -
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.