Get Autism Now - Winter 2010 - Autism Society Of Edmonton Area - Autismedmonton

In the 1990s, behavioural interventions for autism were dominated by applied behaviour analysis (ABA), an approach to therapy that helps children learn new skills.

At the time, treatment for autism was very limited. Most of these children were placed in institutions, far from the public eye, to live out their lives. Professionals commonly held the view that “refrigerator mothers” were responsible for the symptoms observed in these children.

In Alberta, there are two main funding programs available: Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) Persons with Developmental Disabilities Program (PDD)

Autism was originally described as a form of childhood schizophrenia and the result of cold parenting, then as a set of related developmental disorders, and finally as a spectrum condition with wide-ranging degrees of impairment.

Clinicians who encountered autism in the 1950s and 1960s called it by many names. Among them were Kanner's syndrome (named after Leo Kanner), early infantile autism, hyperkinetic disease, and Heller's disease (based on 1908 description by Austrian educator Theodor Heller), also known as dementia infantilis.

April 19, 2023 — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported 26.7 percent of people with autism spectrum disorder have profound autism.

Caption: 'Before the 1959 Mental Health Act, many children with what would now be recognised as autism were housed in institutions for 'mental defectives'.

Early interventions for autism began in the 1920s with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This treatment involved passing electrical currents through the brain and was used to treat a variety of mental illnesses.