Sowing the Seeds of the Autism Field: Leo Kanner (1943)

Abstract

Abstract More than 65 years after Leo Kanner published his seminal article, research on autism continues to be an area of increasing interest. Although much progress has been made, this field is still in its infancy, and many avenues of research are just beginning to be pursued. Despite the time that has passed, the syndrome Kanner identified and his comments about the children he observed continue to have meaning today, and although some of his suggestions about the etiology and presentation of autism were grounded in the thinking of his day, many of his observations were quite prescient. In this paper we explore Kanner's contributions to the field of autism, discuss how the field has changed, and suggest ways that research on autism spectrum disorders can continue to move forward.