Austim

According to popular belief Autism is on the rise. There appears to be an epidemic on our hands. Many people believe that because the number of reported cases of autism is increasing significantly, there is an epidemic. Despite popular belief, autism is not on the rise. The number of cases of autism is increasing. However this is due to broadening diagnosis criteria and the increase in public knowledge on autism. Prior to 1940s there was no such term as autistic. In 1943 Leo Kanner published an article in which he coined the term autism. In the article Kanner described 11 children who were brought to him to seek treatment for their abnormal tendencies. Kanner described these children as having major differences in their ability to socialize, communicate, and deviate from a structured regimen (Heflin & Alaimo, 2007). After Kanner’s article the term autism started to come into public view. However, it was not until 1980 when the American Psychiatric Association published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) III that autism was officially recognized as a disorder. The cases that were reported prior to 1980 were limited to those cases diagnosed by individual doctors or researchers (Gernsbacher, Dawson, & Goldsmith, 2005). Therefore prior to 1980 the number of reported cases of autism was very low In 1980 the DSM-III was published. In this edition autism was defined very strictly. A child needed to show deficits in all 6 sub categories in order for him or her to be diagnosed with autism. Also the 1980 criteria only had 2 subcategories, autism disorder and childhood onset pervasive developmental disorder (Gernsbacher, Dawson, & Goldsmith, 2005). In 1994 the DMS-IV was published. This drastically changed the definition of autism and how autism was diagnosed. The language of the new DSM-IV criteria caused more children to be included. The criteria included 16 subcategories-only half of which had to be met in order to receive a diagnosis