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1916
Term "autism" is coined to refer to individuals with limited personal relationships and interactions with their environment -
1943
Austrian Leo Kanner's paper is published. He studied 11 children at Johns Hopkins Child Psychiatric Unit and found they had typical autistic characteristics (inability to relate to others, isolated from world, dislike physical touch, etc) -
1944
Hans Asperger's paper on high functioning autistic children is published. These children differed from Kanner's because they had average intelligence (although they tended to obsess over specific interests) and their language was also considered to be normal. -
1960s
First large-scale autism study in the US is done. Approximately 1 out of 2,500 people are found to be autistic. "Refrigerator mom" theory is prevalent and so is institutionalization. -
1990
IDEA includes ASD as its own category. The "spectrum" piece is to include all levels from mild to severe. -
2000
Rate of autism has increased to about 1 in 150 -
Current levels
Between 2005-2011, student rate with autism has basically doubled.
