NARPAA E-Class Module 3 - Historical Definitions of Autism

8/6/2019 NARPAA E-Class Module 3 - Historical Definitions of Autism

1/19

MODULE THREE

HISTORICAL DEFINITIONS

OF AUTISM

www.narpaa.org


2/19

MODULE THREE

HISTORICAL DEFINITIONS OFAUTISM


3/19

MODULE THREE

As a result of completion of this module, theparticipant will be able to:

Identify people and organizations that have

played and play an important role in Autismresearch.

Recall why Autism is considered to be a

biological condition.


4/19

EARLY DESCRIPTIONS

Throughout history, people have probably livedwith what we know today as Autism SpectrumDisorder. Some of the earliest published

descriptions of behavior that resemble Autismdate back to the 18th century.


5/19

EARLY DESCRIPTIONS

The term Autism was, for years, only used in somecircles of psychiatrists and psychologists. It isbelieved to have been first introduced around

1911 by noted Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler,who used the term to describe an individual'sexclusion of the outside world and virtualwithdrawal from social life. The words "autistic"and "autism" are developed from the Greek word"autos" meaning "self."


6/19

KANNER AND ASPERGER

TheAutism was first described as a specificcondition by Dr. Leo Kanner, who published hisfamous paper on the disorder in 1943. In 1944,


7/19

KANNER AND ASPERGER

Dr. Hans Asperger, of Vienna, Austria, publishedanother famous paper that first described asimilar condition that later became known as

Asperger Syndrome.


8/19

KANNER AND ASPERGER

Dr. Hans Asperger, of Vienna, Austria, publishedanother famous paper that first described asimilar condition that later became known as

Asperger Syndrome.


9/19

KANNER AND ASPERGER

These landmark papers featured the firsttheoretical attempts to explain these

complex disorders.

Despite the papers published by Kanner and

Asperger in the 1940s, Autism has longbeen a mystery to the medical community

even today.


10/19

MID-20TH

CENTURY DESCRIPTIONS

In the 1950s and 1960s, the medical communitygenerally incorrectly believed Autism was apsychological disturbance caused by detached

or uncaring mothers (refrigerator mothers). Thisbelief, later completely disproved, was based onthe observations and opinions of Dr. BrunoBettleheim, one of the first child developmentspecialists to focus on Autism.


11/19

CHANGING THOUGHT

For decades, generations of mothers of childrenwith Autism were unfairly accused of causingtheir child's disorder. In the early 1960s, a few

people in the medical community, such as Dr.Bernard Rimland and Dr. Eric Schopler, began tochallenge Bettleheim's opinion. In 1964, Dr.Rimland provided a definitive review of evidence

that established Autism as a biological condition thus demonstrating Bettleheim's theory waswrong.


12/19

CHANGING THOUGHT

Soon after Autism was proven to be a biologicalcondition, Dr. Andreas Rett first described RettSyndrome as a specific condition in a paper

published in 1966.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndromehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndromehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndromehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndrome


13/19

CHANGING THOUGHT

In 1977, Dr. Susan Folstein and Dr. Michael Rutterpublished the first Autism twin study, whichrevealed evidence of a genetic basis for Autism.

Over the next ten years, researchers conductedadditional studies that further yielded evidence ofa genetic component to Autism as well as refinedthe symptoms of Autism.


14/19

CHANGING THOUGHT

In 1991, Drs. Catherine Lord, Michael Rutter andAnn LeCouteur published the AutismDiagnostic Interview. In 1992, the American

Psychiatric Association released the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), which refineddiagnostic criteria for autistic disorder. TheWorld Health Organization released a similardiagnostic manual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization


15/19

GENETIC LINKS

In 1994, the National Alliance for Autism Researchin the United States was established, becomingthe first organization in the U.S. dedicated to

funding and accelerating biomedical researchinto the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Founded byKaren and Eric London and other parents ofchildren with Autism, NAAR allocates millions of

dollars each year to funding the finest Autismresearch worldwide and has played a key role inincreasing federal spending on Autism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Alliance_for_Autism_Researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Alliance_for_Autism_Research


16/19

GENETIC LINKS

In the early to mid 1990s, genetic researchersbegan to link Autism to people with abnormalitieson chromosome 15. In 1998, researchers had

reported evidence of a link between Autism andchromosomes 15q and 7q. By 2001, severalresearchers had completed genetic screens thatidentified several genomic regions containinggenes that could be associated with Autism.


17/19

AUTISM TISSUE PROGRAM

The Autism Tissue Program was initiallyestablished and funded in 1998 by NAAR andthe Autism Society of America Foundation. Later,

the M.I.N.D. Institute (Medical Investigation ofNeurodevelopmental Disorders) at the Universityof California at Davis joined as a co-sponsor ofthe program.
http://www.brainbank.org/http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIND_Institutehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIND_Institutehttp://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServerhttp://www.brainbank.org/


18/19


The Autism Tissue Program is the first parent-ledbrain tissue donation program dedicated forAutism research. Post-mortem brain tissue is the

most fundamental, rare and precious resourcethat allows scientists to go far beyond theconstraints of other technologies to study Autismon both a cellular and molecular level.


19/19


Recent epidemiology studies have shown thatAutism Spectrum Disorder is ten times moreprevalent than it was just ten years ago. Autism

is the second most common developmentaldisability, next to intellectual disability. AutismSpectrum Disorder occurs in an estimated one inevery 110 births.

NARPAA E-Class Module 3 - Historical Definitions of Autism

Documents

Transcript of NARPAA E-Class Module 3 - Historical Definitions of Autism