Who discovered autism spectrum disorders?

Answer 1

This is quite a difficult question to answer as there is numerouse people who helped the discovery and developement the knowledge of autism such as Martin Luther, Paul Eugen Bleuler, Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner.

Martin Luther - The first mention of the word Autism was recorded by Martin Luther, a priest and professor of theology from Germany. He explained a story of a 12 year old boy who might have severe autism. However, historians doubt the authenticity of this event.

Paul Eugen Bleur - The word autism originated from the New Latin word; autism, first used by Paul Eugen Bleuler. This Swiss physician was an expert in mental illness and used the term autism while explaining different symptoms of schizophrenia.

Hans Asperger The latin word for Autism literally means self, which Hans Asperger connected it to the self-observing nature of autistic patients. The term autism was first used by Hans Asperger, a pediatrician from Austria. In 1938, he gave a lecture about child psychology where he modified Bleuler's terminology of autism to explain the autistic psychopaths. However, the topic of this research was about Aspergers and not autism, which was proved to be an different disease in the early 1980's.

Leo Kanner - According to some specialists, the discovery of autism can be credited to the works Leo Kanner. as he an Austrian physician and psychiatrist. He was serving at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where he researched on 11 children with significant behavioral similarities. He termed their disease as early infantile autism and published a paper about his findings in 1943. This was the first time the term autism was correctly applied to the correct disease.