It is generally believed that the paper "Autism Disorder in Emotional Contact" published by Professor Leo Kenner of Johns Hopkins University in the United States in 1943 is the earliest classic description of autism for the first time in academic circles in the world.

Autism was first described clinically in the 1940s. 1943, American doctor Kanner reported 1 1 patient and named it "early infantile autism". At that time, he described the characteristics of such patients as follows: a serious lack of emotional contact with others; Weird and repetitive ritual behavior; Silence or obvious language abnormality; High-level visual spatial skills or mechanical memory ability are in contrast with other learning difficulties; Smart, alert and attractive appearance. At first, such patients reported by Kanner were regarded as a subtype of childhood schizophrenia and were not taken seriously. In the 1940s and 1960s, some people described cases similar to those reported by Kanner and gave them various names. At that time, the international and American psychiatric classification and diagnostic standards classified such patients as "children's schizophrenia-like reaction".