Understanding Autism

Autistic Disorder, or autism, is a pervasive developmental disorder found in both children and adults but always diagnosable during childhood. It is characterized by impaired communication and social interaction, uneven cognitive skills, and limited interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Autistic Disorder is sometimes referred to as "Kanner's autism" to distinguish it from the other variations of the disorder, including Asperger's Disorder (Mesibov, Adams, & Klinger, 1997).

Autism occurs more often in males. However, it tends to be more severe when it occurs in females (Mesibov, Adams, & Klinger, 1997). Although some autistic people have savant skills like the extraordinary counting ability of Raymond in the movie Rain Man, the actual incidence of savants among the autistic population is about 10 percent (Grandin, 1995). Autism was originally considered a psychotic disorder. In the DSM-III, published in 1980, it was finally classified as a pervasive developmental disorder (Mesibov, Adams, & Klinger, 1997).

Autism as a disorder first appeared in the scientific literature in 1943, when Leo Kanner published his paper "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact." This study gave case descriptions for 11 children who showed similar behaviors and cognitive processes but did not qualify for a diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia. Kanner used the word "autism," which specifically describes withdrawal within oneself, because he considered social withdrawal to be the defining characteristic of this disorder. Kanner specified social withdrawal, insistence on sameness of routine, and abnormal use of language as the three areas in which autistic children were different from normally developing children (Mesibov, Adams, & Klinger, 1997).