when was autism first diagnosed

Autism was first described as a distinct medical condition in 1943 by child psychiatrist Leo Kanner, who called it “early infantile autism.”

Quick Scoop

Early uses of the word “autism”

• In 1911, Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coined the word autism from the Greek “autos” (“self”) to describe the extreme self-focus he saw in some patients with schizophrenia, not a childhood condition.

• So the term “autism” existed by 1911, but it referred to a symptom within schizophrenia rather than what we now call autism spectrum disorder.

First proper diagnosis of autism

• In 1943, Leo Kanner published a landmark paper on 11 children who showed intense need for sameness, social withdrawal, unusual language patterns, and strong interests, and he labeled this pattern “early infantile autism.”

• This 1943 paper is widely considered the first diagnosis and clinical description of autism as its own condition, separate from schizophrenia or intellectual disability.

Parallel work by Hans Asperger

• In 1944, Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger described a group of children with social difficulties, focused interests, and good verbal skills, later termed “Asperger’s syndrome.”

• His work helped expand recognition that autism could appear in people with average or high intelligence and more fluent speech.

When autism became an official diagnosis

• Autism did not become a formally recognized diagnosis in major manuals until 1980, when “infantile autism” was added to the DSM-III (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition).

• Later editions broadened this into “autism spectrum disorder,” reflecting a range of presentations rather than a single narrow profile.

Earlier historical hints

• Some physicians in the 1800s and early 1900s described children who, in retrospect, may have been autistic (for example, Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard’s “Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron” around 1801, and other case reports), but they did not diagnose autism as a separate condition.

• These early descriptions show that autistic people almost certainly existed and were observed long before the word “autism” was used in the modern diagnostic sense.

TL;DR:

• Word “autism” first used (as a schizophrenia symptom): 1911, Eugen Bleuler.

• Autism first diagnosed as its own condition : 1943, Leo Kanner’s “early infantile autism.”

• Official diagnostic category in manuals: 1980 (DSM-III “infantile autism”).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.