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In his original report of the autistic syndrome, Kanner speculated that the condition he described was congenital, i.e., that the children were born with it (Kanner 1943). Parental report of age of onset was one of the major significant variables noted to separate childhood autism from other forms of severe disturbance – notably childhood schizophrenia (Kolvin 1971; Rutter 1972). Early onset was also a feature included in some of the first more operationalized definitions of the disorder (e.g., American Psychiatric Association [APA] 1980; Rutter 1972).
Subsequent work has generally supported the notion that autism is an early-onset disorder present at birth or becoming apparent in the first year of life. Although the term onset is typically used, in fact recognition is a more appropriate term since various factors might complicate recognition of the disorder, e.g., parental sophistication, education, denial, and so forth (Chawarska...
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References and Reading
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Volkmar, F.R. (2020). Onset. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1543-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1543-3
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