Leo Kanner Theory Of Autism Research Paper

Susan and Joe of Omaha, Nebraska are trying to deal with the resent diagnoses of their two and a half year old girl Sophie with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. After coming to terms with their initial shock and grief they went to their doctor for answers. Some of their questions were, what causes autism, why Sophie, are there any cures and what can they do to help her become the most developed woman she can be? Like many other parents had heard before them they received vague and inadequate answers. The doctor told them that there is no known cause of autism and since researchers do not know the cause there is no cure and no agreed upon way of helping a child with autism. Susan and Joe were astonished that so little is known about the causes
In the nineteen forties, Autism in a child was thought to have stemmed from the poor parenting skills of the mother. It was assumed that the mother did not provide an emotionally stable or secure environment for the child. This instability led to the afflicted child’s malady of Autism. These mothers were given the name of “refrigerator mothers”. This theory was substantiated when Kanner published several articles that gave credibility to the idea that a cold and neglectful mother was the cause of autism. At this time if you r child was diagnosed with autism you the mother would be immediately blamed. You would be viewed as a unfeeling, frigid and harsh woman that had brought this “hardship” upon herself. As a mother it wasn’t enough that you had to accept that your child had a mental disorder you also had to live with the fact that is was your fault and everyone knew it. Blaming the mother would be a pattern that would continue for another
I can’t help but think people in nineteen forty thought the same thing about the “frigid mother” theory. I hope we are close to finding the cause for autism. Then hopefully we can start finding a cure or at least be able to prevent new cases of it. Until then we will all fallow and speculate, but before we blame something or someone as the cause of autism understand the history of this problem and all the misguided blame that was thrown. If we do not know the history of the problem we will be condemned to repeat