Autism

... AUTISM During the first half of twentieth century, there were variety of descriptions for autistic-like syndromes. The terminology was primarily used to reflect the general assumption that autism was the very early onset of adult-type psychoses. The syndrome identified in 1943 by a psychiatrist, Leo Kanner, who distinguished the characteristics and symptoms of autism so that it could be differentiated from mental retardation or childhood schizophrenia. The most fundamental symptom of autism as he described it was "extreme autistic aloneness" and he spent further emphasis on the emotional coldness and obsessive qualities that he saw in the parents. In his research, Kanner's description of the syndrome of infantile autism was an exception to preceding misconceptions. He set his diagnostic criteria based on specific child behaviors as he observed them rather than in terms of modifications of adult-psychosis criteria. Furthermore, it is often hard to differentiate between autism and mental retardation because

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