Autism is defined as the brain disorder that begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood. Autism affects three areas of human development: (1) verbal and nonverbal communication, (2) social interaction, and (3) creative or imaginative play. Autism is considered a severe disorder and developmental disability that prevents individuals from properly understanding what they see, hear and sense. The cause of autism remains unknown. Current theories indicate a problem with the function or structure of the central nervous system. This essay overviews the history of autism and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). It provides an idea of the population and causes of autism. It takes about the program services and the current operational issues related to autism.
The diagnosis of Autism is often times delayed, and may happen due to the fear of an incorrect diagnosis. Autism has many defining features which can include: impaired socialization, impaired verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. Many believe that early intervention can improve outcomes for children with Autism. There are many components one must look at when diagnosing and identifying Autism. “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened for developmental delays and disabilities during regular well-child doctor visits at 9 month, 18 months, and 24 or 30 months” (www.cdc.gov).
Autism has a range of diagnostic criteria. This was described by Wing and Gould (1979) as the Triad of Impairments. The triad consists of:
In the mid 1900s, psychiatrist Leo Kanner and a pediatrician Hans Asperger used the same word “autism” for a condition where children had deficits in socializing and forming contact. Stemming off the greek word “autos” meaning self, Kanner stated that autistic children had good cognitive potential yet they had islets of ability meaning their intelligence was focused in silos. There was an assumption that autistics were incapable of intelligence and were mentally disabled. Later, Laurent Mottron discredited the theories that autism is caused parents or “refrigerator mothers” and shed light on the fact that neurotypicals lack the abilities of autistic savants. The view of individuals with autism is skewed and as Amanda Baggs shows in her vivid video describing her behaviour, it
Research into Autism has grown enormously over the past 20 years due to growing awareness and the number of children and adults affected. In 1943, Leo Kanner first described the classic autistic syndrome. Since then, our knowledge and understanding in this area has broadened. In consequence, estimates of prevalence have increased considerably.
Autism is most commonly described as a developmental disability that is diagnosed over a broad spectrum of impairment and identifiers; and within the first three to five years of life. The number of cases of ASD have steadily grown over the past several decades and can be seen in 1 in every 88 births (Ogletree, Morrow-Odom, &
It wasn’t until 1943 when the classification of autism was introduced by Dr. Leo Kanner. Dr. Kanner, a psychiatrist from John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, reported on eleven child patients
Autism has undergone significant definition changes in the past. The term was first used in 1912 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler from the Greek word for self—autos—in his description of patients with “schizophrenic thinking divorced from both logic and reality” (Rorvik 249). However, an established set of guidelines for diagnosis would not be established until 1943, when Leo Kanner, a German émigré to the United States, wrote “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Content”, a landmark essay in which he “described eleven children who, from infancy, had seemed to cut off from their parents…[and] existed in their own, often impenetrable world” (Pollak 250). The common features that he noticed in those eleven children were
Autism has become one of the top disabilities in California’s developmental system. Today, the rise of autism is increasing by 10 - 17 percent each year. (Madeleine 3) "The disease was first identified by child psychologist Leo Kanner in 1943 at Johns Hopkins University" (Little 2). Autism is a disorder that is usually detected within the first three years. According to the Autism Society of America, 1 in 166 individuals are diagnosed with autism, making it more common than the pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. Boys are four times more likely to have it than girls. People with autism have a hard time communicating verbally and physically. They have special ways of gathering and reacting to information presented to them.
The word autism meaning “living in self” in Greek was first utilized in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist, Eugene Bleuler. He used this word to describe a condition of self absorption caused by social relatedness (Gupta 2004). In 1943, Dr. Leo Kanner from the John Hopkins Hospital introduced the label early infantile autism when he reported 11 children exhibiting similar behaviors. Before his work, doctors labeled such children as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed. About 75% have IQs below 70. At the same time, research is equivocal regarding the number of children with autism who are nonverbal,
Whether a diagnosis of autism, or diagnosis of another disability is to be made, interventions can be developed to add the child 's “tool belt” on their waist of life. Research shows that the early intervention can highly impact the likelihood of success (Krader, 2014). The American Academy of pediatric tells us that the diagnosis procedure should start in children between 18 and 24 months. With the essential screening process, recommendations can be used to begin intervention and start the help that the child needs. As we have seen through research, not all children receive testing that proves equality (Krader, 2014).
For many years, autism was rare, occurring in just five children per 100,000 live births. However, according to the Autism Research Institute, since the the early 1900's, the rate of
Leo Kanner, a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the first self-described child-psychiatrist, first described what we now know to be autism in his 1943 paper titled, "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact." He described a disorder similar to, but distinct from childhood schizophrenia. Autism, taken from symptoms of schizophrenia, described withdrawn symptoms or social interaction problems, and was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Ed. (DSM-III) under the name Infantile Autism in 1980. This was later changed to autism in the revised DSM-III in 1987. The authors indicated that some camps still considered autism a schizophrenic disorder, and that infantile autism
Tens of millions of people have been diagnosed with Autism worldwide, effecting both genders, all races, ethnicities and people from all socioeconomic classes. In 2010 a Surveillance Summary was conducted in the United States, where it identified that one in 68 children are diagnosed with Autism (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). It has been recognised
autism was first described in the 1940s. Leo Kanner in the United States and Hans Asperger in Austria independently published papers describing children with severe social and communicative impairments. Both Kanner and Asperger used the term "autism" (meaning “alone”) to describe the syndromes they had identified. Kanner described children who had impoverished social relationships from early in life, employed deviant language, and were subject to behavioral stereotypies. Asperger’s description identified children with normal IQs and normal language development who suffered from social and some types of communicative impairments. (slaughter)