Autism literally means "selfism". It has been recognised by the medical profession since the early 1940's. Previously children with autism where given various different labels and diagnosis ranging from mental retardation ot childhood schizophrenia. Autism became recognised by the medical profession due to the work of two people - Leo Kanner a psychologist from America giving us the term "autism" and Austrian physician Hans Asperger lending his name to Aspergers syndrome. Over the years there have been various theories as to the cause of autism refrigerator mothers, birth defects, genetics. There is no conclusive evidence to support one single theory many believe it is a combination of various factors within different children - although environment and had parenting (refrigerator mothers) is now ruled out. Autism is a behavioral disorder, which at present there are no medical tests available for diagnosing. Diagnosis is achieved by watching the behavior of a child a seeing if it's behavior fits a set of criteria's required to assign the label of "autistic". This behavior covers a "Tri-ad of impairments". These impairments encompass social interaction, communication and imagination. There is no one single behavior that indicates autism.
Autism is 4 to 5 times more likely to occur in a boy that in a girl the reason for this is unknown. There are debates surrounding autism. There is some disagreement as to whether autism can occur after birth or whether you are born with autism. Those that agree with "late onset" autism cite cases where children appeared to be normal developing and then suddenly developed autistic characteristics. Others say that these children were probably born with autism but it is difficult to see the characteristics in very young children and it is only when the child begins to develop and grow that we can see the difference to normal developing children. Another debate surrounding autism is whether it is curable. Temple Garding and Donna William's would say yes to a extent. Both women are much improved but still have some traits of autism. Dr Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research Institute tells that he has seen cases of children previously autistic now seemingly cured and has had many letters from parents autistic children who now believe their children are cured.
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