What was life for Autistics like back 50-100 years ago?

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I want to know?

I can address the 50-60 years ago range, as I'm 61 years old. The frequency of autism was much lower then, approximately one in 2000 for all ASDs. There was no routine testing (in the southwestern US) and treatment was essentially on an emergency basis. When I was almost 3 years old, my mom had trouble handling my reactions to being touched and fed, and I ended up in a program at the Naval hospital (my dad was in the Navy) where kids with all sorts of developmental issues were treated together. There were exercises provided to my parents to encourage me to speak along with some learning machines. There were a half-dozen kids in the program, not all autistic. We had manual coordination activities in that program, the doctor read to us and pointed to pictures, we had some group activities (walking together like a train). I didn't speak until I was 4 years old. When I was about 3 1/2, I was sent to a school for deaf children, and that was a common strategy with autistic kids at the time. I still love sign language. When I spoke I was immediately withdrawn from the program. I kept wanting to run away from home and got locked in a small room almost constantly for a year - there were no classes or training or support for parents of autistic kids to give them strategies to use. Then I got mainstreamed into kindergarten when I was 5. Back then there was a lot of bullying in elementary school as well as junior and senior high school. So school was a rather lonely experience, although I excelled academically. There just wasn't much awareness of autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions - all kids were more or less treated the same. You had to either learn to toughen up and act like other kids or face consequences and have a poor future. Temple Grandin is about 10 years older than me and she wrote about this - you were sort of brutally forced to conform and this produced considerable success that wouldn't have happened with softer treatment. On the other hand it also produced a false self and lack of authenticity in addition to the isolation.

I can go back 50 years ago. If you were severe enough not to be able to function in society like other "mental defectives" as they were called you got put away in an institution and never came out. The "patients" in institutions were often horribly mistreated beaten and shackled if you "acted up" . As eyedash said autism was not well known so if you could not function in society it is likely you got misdiagnosed with things like brain damage, schizophrenia, psychosis, and retardation.

If you were diagnosed with autism it was even worse. It was nearly universally believed that autism was caused by a cold uncaring parent who did not want the kid to be born in the first place. You had all sorts or horrific mistreatments and experiments done on you in an attempt to make you not autistic. It was recommended the parents rid their households of all reminders that an autistic kid lived there followed by years of psychotherapy designed to find out what drove the parent to create a someone not fully human.

There was no real concept of special education or IEP's. Education was not a right. In fact, some states had laws saying public schools could not accept people who were physically or mentally disabled.

As eyedash said if you had a "milder" form of autism it was usually not identified. People figured you were just weird or lazy and bullied you for it. Bullying was considered "kids being kids", a normal part of growing up. If you could not handle it was considered your fault for being weak. Since you did not know you were autistic you "knew" it was your fault that most other kids seemed to do social things so much easier then you could, but you were confused as to why it was your fault.

On the other hand kids in my generation were given a lot more freedom than kids in your generation. A "hovering" parent was practically unknown. I was allowed to walk several blocks by myself at age 6, ride my bike for miles and take public transportation by myself well before I became a teenager. This independence destroyed some autistic kids but it also allowed some of us by trail and many errors to figure out what worked for us and what did not.

I'm 54 and agree with the post above. I was functional enough that teachers just considered me "different," "weird" "in his own world" and so on. Though I performed way above grade level in purely academic terms, I was hopeless socially, as well as having other difficulties that no one bothered to try to understand. Still, I was lucky. If I'd been a bit lower-functioning, I'd probably have been put in a "special" school for learning-disabled ("ret*d") kids, or just institutionalized.

I'm 53 and can relate to all the experiences above. I began school at four years old with an ESL background. (My first language was German and I still spoke that language almost exclusively when I began school). I was a very happy, social, active little girl. My teacher misdiagnosed me as hyperactive. I was very active, but not classically "hyperactive." If you didn't have any obvious disability, they just assumed you were "stupid." My academics were strong throughout school, but my social skills were rather weak. I was one of those nerdy types who had her nose in a book all the time. I am making up for that now by living a more active life.

Like the others, I was just considered "weird" or "different." I was determined that nobody could call me "stupid" or "ignorant." Now I am working to apply that to real life, rather than just academics.

A lot worse than it is now.

I'm 57 years old. I was diagnosed about 54 years ago. The doctor/shrink whatever suggested I be institutionalized. My mother wouldn't have that; she "saw something in my eyes" which indicated that "something was there" within me. I was called a "vegetable" by one doctor.

When I started speaking, it was determined that I wasn't "autistic," but that I was "brain-injured." So I went to a nursery school for "brain-injured" children. For first grade, though, I went to a regular public school, but was placed in one of those "special classes."

In those days, the New York City public schools placed kids with all sorts of disabilities in classes together. The teacher had to sort out who "needed what." Fortunately, I had a good teacher in first grade, and she allowed me to read in a corner cubicle while she attended to other kids with other disabilities. She also taught me to subtract using "borrowing." I had to keep my hands folded at the desk though while the class was taught together.

In second grade, I went to a special private school for kids with all sorts of disabilities that had just opened. This was partially because there was a big teacher's strike in 1968. There was the academic course, and the more vocational course of study. I was placed in the academic course. If you "got out of line," you were thrown out of class, and made to stand in the hall. If it was something serious, you were sent to the principal's office. The principal usually wasn't a nice person in the 1960s, unless many of them now. You were afraid you were going to get some sort of corporal punishment or something. Except for being hit with a ruler a couple of times, I never received any corporal punishment, fortunately.

I'm 47 now and I can tell you that the 70's and 80's weren't all that much better. Yes, we had special ED. But all they did was put you in a corner of the room and just expected you to do your schoolwork without any help.

I think my grandfather had AS, and I'm sure my mother did. She would have been 101 this year. We both have/had high IQ and low EQ, but she only ever noticed the first. She kept her relationships superficial, and volunteered at a mental institution to be sure to be listed among the sane. Any time that someone worried about how I was developing, she shut them off before they could ask about herself.
Fifty two years ago, I was on my own, unemployed, in a strange city. I muddled through, partly because so many young people valued eccentricity around that time.