Brief History of Autism Research

The latest issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has a nice summary of autism research over the past two decades. Tony Charman, in an editorial, points out one the key developments in autism research has been the shift from retrospective, parental accounts of their children’s behavior to prospective, observational studies. This has led to more fine-grained and detailed recognition and reporting of autism symptoms. Retrospective accounts often under-reported declines in intentional social behavior between 24 and 36 months. New work also studies the heritability of autism traits.

See T. Charman, “Autism Research Comes of (a Youth) Age,” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 49,, no. 3 (2010): 208–09