Introduction
In this entry, an attempt is made to provide an overview of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in South Africa. To this end, attention will be drawn to the historical context, current treatment options, legal mandates for service, research efforts, and relevant controversies. Compiling such a description presents a methodologically complex task – very little systematic data are available about ASD in South Africa, at least in part attributable to the absence of centralized bodies tasked with the monitoring of available services. There are even less data available in peer-reviewed journals, in line with the findings of Tomlinson and Swartz (2003), who demonstrate that in a survey of 764 journal articles related to ASD, only 4 % were outside the USA or Europe. A systematic review of “autism” and “Africa” in the Web of Science over the 10-year period of 2002–2012 revealed 33 papers about or from Africa, in rather stark contrast to >18,000 peer-reviewed papers on autism over the...
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van Schalkwyk, G.I., Beyer, C., de Vries, P.J. (2016). South Africa and Autism. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102111-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102111-1
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