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History of Autism
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Leo Kanner
Kanner published "Autistic Disorders of Affective Contact".During a case study of 11 children, Kanner recognized a unique syndrome. The syndrome would later be called "early infantile autism disorder". -
Hans Asperger
First definition of Asperger Syndrome. Hans studied 4 boys with similiar, yet milder, characteristics as the children in Kanner's study. "Austic Psychopathy" published. -
Bruno Bettelheim- Director of The Orthogenic School for the emotionally disturbed children in Chicago
Psychoanalytical therapist, Holocaust survivor, and publisher of "Individual and mass behaviour in extreme siuations" becomes the director of The Orthogenic School. He believed that autism had a correlation with mother-child relationships. His treatment for children with autism was keeping them at the school to try to teach them approriate behaviour and their parents were to seek psychotherapy for themselves. -
Refrigerator Mother Theory
Refrigerator Mother was a term used by Kanner to describe the lack of warmth from a mother to her child. He later proposed this correlation as being significant with autistic children. -
DSM-I
First version of the DSM is released. Autistic behaviors were catergorized under schizophrenia. -
Lysergic Acid Diethlyamide
With very few treatment options in the 1960's, LSD is used occasionally to treat autism. -
The Squeeze Machine
"Temple Grandin, an 18-year-old who was born with autism, invents the "squeeze machine," which exerts a kind of deep touch pressure that has a significant calming effect on animals and humans." pbs.org -
The empty fortress is published
Bettelheim wrote this book which is based of the success stories of The Orthogenic School. -
DSM-II
Major revision to the 2nd edition of the DSM is the classification of autism under the umbrella diagnosis of schizophrenia. -
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders established
First major journal dedicated to autism research. -
DD Act Revised
DD Act revised to include autism and established a system of agenices to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. -
DSM-III
Autism receives a seperate diagnostic category. -
Lorna Wig
1st to use the term Asperger Syndrome. -
Bettelheim commits suicide
Investigation of his suicide led to the controversy of his career. It was revealed that Bettelheim had a lack of credentials for the job and he also hired staff that were untrained. There were also accusations of plagiarism of his published papers, -
DSM-IV
4 categories added to the autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger's syndrome, Rett's Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-NOS. -
MMR vaccine and autism
Dr. Andrew Wakefile, researcher at the Royal Free Hopsital in London, published a paper that showed a possible correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism. In this paper, 12 childre with PDD were studied. -
Brian Deer- New York Times
Released an article on his investigation of Wakefield's claim of the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. His findings revealed that there were several inaccuracies in the study of all 12 children and that the information that was published by Wakefield was distorted. -
Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act
In 2004, IDEA was passed. This law is based off the sam e principles as the Education for All Handicap Children Act of 1975. IDEA requires all that public schools provide specialized education to students with disabilities, from birth to 21 years of age. -
Wakefield- Retraction of Lancet Papers
After 136 days of investigation, Wakefield's Lancet papers were retracted and the GMC terminated his license to practice based on clear misconduct of his professional duty as a medical practitioner. -
DSM-V
Subcategories of autism elimated. Individuals are now diagnosed on an autism spectrum with different levels of severity.
