Autism itself has probably been around since the dawn of time, like so many other conditions. It was just improperly dx'ed and lumped together with what was believed to be general retardation, but it's only been in recent years that we have seen the alarming increase in the number of cases, likely in part because of better diagnostic tools and techniques, and of course, more knowledge. Leo Kanner (www.whonamedit.com) first coined the term autism back during WW II, and Hans Asperger (www.whonamedit.com) determined that there was also a certain type of milder autism, which we now know of as Asperger's Syndrome, so it goes back at least that far, and likely much further, as accounts of people's signs and behaviors in history have often hinted to me that they had it, too.


LIZARD