Infantile Autism Essay
What is Autism? Did you know, according to CCN, about sixty eight children has Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? ASD, also known as autism, is a brain disorder that interferes with a
person s behavior and/or interactions with others. The word autism, which has been in use for
about 100 years, comes from the Greek word autos, meaning self. The term describes conditions in
which a person is removed from social interaction hence, an isolated self (WedMD). Autismitself is
often called autistic disorder , childhood autism , or infantile autism . It appears in infancy and
early childhood, causing delay in many basic actions that develops at that time, such as learning to
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The word Autism was first used in 1908 to describe schizophrenia, a brain disorder in which
people interpret reality abnormally, people who were self absorbed or cocky. In 1943, Dr. Leo
Kenner was the first to used Autism for kids who were highly intelligent but did not want to
interact with others, he called this early infantile autism. In 1950, Bruno Bettelhiem, a child
development specialist, viewed autism was being caused by emotionally cold and distanced
mothers. This became known as the Refrigerator Mother Theory . The Refrigerator Mother
Theory is when a mother does not interact, or play, with the child at all, causing the child to be
fridged ( David E. Simpson, J.J. Hanley, and Gordon Quinn in the film History of Autism Blame
). In 1987, The DSM ( Dianostic and Statistical Manual of Matal Disorders) replaced infantile
autism with autism disorder . Around this time, researchers used to think the cause of autism was
due to bad parenting. Not only that, the federal government made autism a special education
category. This allowed public schools to start knowing children with autism and offer them
special services. Some children would be sent to foster care to see if they would recover back
then, By this time, many researchers were convinced that the basic reasons were to be found in
neurological disturbances, sometimes combined with hereditary illnesses like tuberous sclerosis,
metabolic disturbances like PKU or chromosomal aberrations such as fragile X chromosome
(Certec). In 1994, the National Alliance for Autism Research and Cure Autism Now raised
awareness about ASD. Later on that year, researchers began to believe that the cause of autism was
due to mercury in vaccines. This lead to vaccine makers to stop making thimerosal, a vaccine that is
made of mainly mercury. In 2001, the National Institute of Health could not find
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