# The forgotten history of autism

- Institution: TED
- Department: TED2015
- Speaker: Steve Silberman
- Year: 2015
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Psychology and the brain, History
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_silberman_the_forgotten_history_of_autism)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Decades ago, few pediatricians had heard of autism. In 1975, 1 in 5,000 kids was estimated to have it. Today, 1 in 68 is on the autism spectrum. What caused this steep rise? Steve Silberman points to “a perfect storm of autism awareness” — a pair of psychologists with an accepting view, an unexpected pop culture moment and a new clinical test. But to really understand, we have to go back further to an Austrian doctor by the name of Hans Asperger, who published a pioneering paper in 1944. Because it was buried in time, autism has been shrouded in misunderstanding ever since. (This talk was part of a TED2015 session curated by Pop-Up Magazine: popupmagazine.com or @popupmag on Twitter.)

## Lectures

1. [The forgotten history of autism](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/steve_silberman_the_forgotten_history_of_autism/d8be1fd01ad9), 14 min (TED's player)