ABSTRACT
The word 'autism' first appeared in the professional literature when Leo Kanner, a child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, wrote a description of some children from his child psychiatric unit in 1943. The term Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is replacing pervasive developmental disorders as the umbrella term for the triad of impairments. Many individuals with ASD also have additional learning difficulties. Diagnoses with the greatest overlap that are most frequently confused with ASDs are Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Schizoid Personality Disorder. The distinctions between OCD and ASDs are difficult to distinguish because many people with ASDs have repetitive thoughts or behaviours. Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder is a developmental language disorder characterised by problems in language content and comprehension and function. ADHD is used to describe people who have difficulty paying attention and controlling their behaviour and activity levels.
