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when was autism first recorded

Autism-like behavior was first described in medical records in 1799, but autism as a distinct condition was not clearly outlined until the 1940s.

Quick timeline

  • 1799 – Early recorded case
    French physician Jean Itard documented a boy known as “Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron,” who had great difficulty with communication and showed repetitive behaviors that many historians now interpret as autistic traits, though the word “autism” was not used.
  • 1911 – Word “autism” coined
    Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler used the term “autism” to describe extreme self-absorption in people with schizophrenia, so it referred to a symptom , not the modern idea of autism spectrum.
  • 1920s–1930s – Early scientific descriptions
    In 1925–1926, researcher Grunya Sukhareva published detailed clinical descriptions of children with social difficulties, narrow interests, and sensory sensitivities that closely match what we now call autistic traits, but her work was largely overlooked for decades.
  • 1943–1944 – Autism as a distinct condition
    • In 1943, Leo Kanner published a paper on 11 children and called their condition “early infantile autism,” describing social aloofness, a need for sameness, and atypical language.
* In 1944, Hans Asperger described children with similar social and behavioral traits but often strong verbal skills and intelligence, later labeled “Asperger’s syndrome.”

So, if your question is “when was autism first recorded?” there are two good ways to answer, depending on what you mean:

  • First recorded autistic-like case in history: 1799 (Victor of Aveyron, described by Jean Itard).
  • First clear medical description of autism as its own condition: 1943 (Leo Kanner’s paper on early infantile autism).

In everyday discussions, people usually mean Kanner’s 1943 paper when they talk about the moment autism was “first diagnosed,” but historically, autistic traits were observed and written about much earlier.

TL;DR:

  • First known autism-like case in medical literature: 1799.
  • Autism as its own diagnosis : 1943 , with Leo Kanner’s “early infantile autism.”

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