Autism is a neurological disorder, that typically appears during the first 3 years of life.
It affects functioning of the brain what causes physical, social and language skills.
Autism interferes with the normal development of the brain in the areas of reasoning, social
interaction and communication skills.
The disorder makes it hard for autistic people to communicate with others and relate to the
outside world. They are withdrawn and self preoccupied.
Autism knows no social, racial or ethnic boundaries. It is four times more prevelant in boys than in girls. Autism is the third most common developmental disability – more common than Down´s
Syndrome.
Although, the majority of public, including many professionals in the medical, educational
and vocational fields are still unaware of how autism affects people and how to work
effectively with induviduals with autism.
Our understanding of this disorder has grown tremendously since it was first described in
1943, but it is still incompletely understood.
Historical background
In the past autism was called „Dementia Praecox“ (= early mental deficiency)
Induviduals with autism were excluded from the outside world and put in madhouses.
In 1914 Eugen Bleuer (swiss psychatrist) coined the term AUTISM (greek „autos“ = self)
30 years later Hans Asperger (Austrian psychatrist) and Leo Kanner (German psychatrist)
took the term „autism“ up again.
Both described, independent from each other, for the first time the syndrome.
Aspergr and Kanner observed children with peculiar behaviour, children who were
preoccupied and withdrawn.

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