Tony Attwood in his book The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome refers to the following paper by Hans Asperger: 'Das psychisch abnorme Kind.' Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 49, 1-12. ('The mentally abnormal child.' Viennese Clinical Weekly 49.)
Attwood quotes from the paper in his chapter Social Understanding and Friendship:
Quote:
These children can take note of 'rules of etiquette' given to them in a down-to-earth kind of way, which they then can fulfil - like they would a sum. The more 'objective' such a law is - maybe in a form of schedule, which includes all possible variations of daily routines, and which must be stuck to by both parties in the most pedantic kind of way - the better it will be. So it is not through a habit, which unconsciously and instinctively grows by itself, but through conscious, intellectual training, in years of difficult and conflict-ridden work, that one will achieve the best possible assimiliation to the community, which will be more and more successful with growing intellectual maturity.
It would seem that in 1938, Hans Asperger described children who might have been on the autism spectrum.
Until I read Attwood's book I did not know about Asperger's 1938 paper.
03 Dec 2009, 5:28 am
