History of Autism

By Megryan1624

  • 1797

    1797
    Autistic traits were first recorded by Jean Marc-Gaspard Itard, concerning “the wild boy of Aveyron.”

  • 1851

    1851
    Biography of philosopher and scientist Henry Cavendish, described the characteristics of what is now called Asperger’s syndrome.

  • 1908-11

    1908-11
    Autism the “Inner life” is first used by Eugen Bleular to describe children with symptoms related to schizophrenia.

  • 1925

    1925
    Russian psychiatrist, Grunya Sukhareva described the children that were cared for at her clinic as having a neurobiological condition with “autistic thinking”.

  • 1930s

    1930s
    Hans Asperger’s studied intellectually able children with an “authentic psychopathy”, known today as Asperger’s Syndrome.

  • 1938

    1938
    Leo Kanner worked with young children, recognizing a unique condition.

  • 1943-44

    1943-44
    Asperger and Kanner publish four months apart.

  • 1955

    1955
    It is first recognized in Britain that autistic children labeled as “maladjusted” are not defective and need better care.

  • 1962

    1962
    NAS is formed as a parent advocacy group

  • 1967

    1967
    Bruno Bettelheim hypothesizes the false theory that autism is caused by “refrigerator mothers”, who do not love their children enough.

  • 1977

    1977
    Further research on twins shows that autism is in fact largely caused by genetics.

  • 1979

    1979
    Lorna Wing and Judith Gould put forward the idea of a “triad of impairments” to diagnose autism. We

  • 1980

    1980
    DSM-lll: Infantile Autism is separated from childhood schizophrenia.

  • 1980

    1980
    Lorna Wing introduces the concept of the “Autism Spectrum”, including Asperger’s Syndrom.

  • 1985

    1985
    Simon Baron-Cohen researched autism in terms of differences kin “theory of mind”.

  • 1987

    1987
    DSM-lll: infantile Autism becomes “Autism Disorder”.

  • 1994

    1994
    DSM-lV is released, included Asperger’s Syndrome.

  • 1998

    1998
    A false link is made between the MMR vaccine and Autism. The research was later retracted.

  • 2006

    2006
    A study estimates that 1 in 100 children are artistic

  • 2009

    2009
    The Autism Act 2009: Act of parliament making provisions for autistic adults.

  • 2013

    2013
    DSM-V: Autism Spectrum Disorders

  • 2014

    2014
    A study conducted in the US suggest That Autism prevalence is 1 in 59.

  • 2016

    2016
    Nearly half of children with autism are shown to have cognitive skills that far exceed their verbal abilities.

  • 2016

    2016
    Evidence of regression in language, social and play skills in 1 in 5 children with autism

  • 2017

    2017
    Brain scans accurately predict autism in babies at 6 months.

  • 2019

    2019
    Large study indicates that “ High functioning” is a misnomer, due to the lack of social skills in high IQ autistic people.

  • 2020

    2020
    Research demonstrates the”female protective effects”, indicates that males are more genetically susceptible to autism than females.