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Term "autism" is coined to refer to individuals with limited personal relationships and interactions with their environment
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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)
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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.
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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.
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IDEA includes ASD as its own category. The "spectrum" piece is to include all levels from mild to severe.
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Rate of autism has increased to about 1 in 150
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Between 2005-2011, student rate with autism has basically doubled.
