Autism Learning Objectives
- Brief History
- What does autism look like ?
- What causes autism ?
- How common is autism ?
- What can help ?
Conditions Linked to Brain Development
- Difficulties from early childhood
- Causes problems in daily life
Includes:
Includes:
- Autism
- Intellectual Disability
- ADHD
- Language Disorder
- Tic Disorders
History
- Coined the label ‘early infantile autism’.
- In his seminal paper Autistic Disturbances of
Affective Contact (1943) he identified
children with:
- a powerful desire for aloneness”
- an obsessive insistence on persistent sameness” - Hans Asperger (1906-1980)
- Described a “milder” form of Autism – called
Asperger Syndrome - Lectured about this as early as 1938
- Work not recognised until the 1980s – probably
due to writing his papers in German - However, his work is marred by involvement
with Nazism - Asperger’s diagnosis - removed from current
diagnostic manuals - Wing and Gould’s work in the
1970’s introduced the idea of an
autistic ‘spectrum’ - Difficulties with socialising,
communication & imagination
across a range of ability levels &
severity
