<P> Two subtypes of autism were described between 1943 and 1944 by two Austrian researchers working independently--Austrian - born Asperger and child psychiatrist Leo Kanner (1894--1981). Kanner emigrated to the United States in 1924; he described a similar syndrome in 1943, known as "classic autism" or "Kannerian autism", characterized by significant cognitive and communicative deficiencies, including delayed or absent language development . Kanner's descriptions were influenced by the developmental approach of Arnold Gesell, while Asperger was influenced by accounts of schizophrenia and personality disorders . Asperger's frame of reference was Eugen Bleuler's typology, which Christopher Gillberg has described as "out of keeping with current diagnostic manuals", adding that Asperger's descriptions are "penetrating but not sufficiently systematic". Asperger was unaware of Kanner's description published a year before his; the two researchers were separated by an ocean and a raging war, and Asperger's descriptions were unnoticed in the United States . During his lifetime, Asperger's work, in German, remained largely unknown outside the German - speaking world . </P> <P> According to Ishikawa and Ichihashi in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Medicine, the first author to use the term Asperger's syndrome in the English - language literature was the German physician, Gerhard Bosch . Between 1951 and 1962, Bosch worked as a psychiatrist at Frankfurt University . In 1962, he published a monograph detailing five case histories of individuals with PDD that was translated into English eight years later, becoming one of the first to establish German research on autism, and attracting attention outside the German - speaking world . </P> <P> Lorna Wing is credited with widely popularizing the term "Asperger's syndrome" in the English - speaking medical community in her 1981 publication of a series of case studies of children showing similar symptoms . Wing also placed AS on the autism spectrum, although Asperger was uncomfortable characterizing his patient on the continuum of autistic spectrum disorders . She chose "Asperger's syndrome" as a neutral term to avoid the misunderstanding equated by the term autistic psychopathy with sociopathic behavior . Wing's publication effectively introduced the diagnostic concept into American psychiatry and renamed the condition as Asperger's; however, her accounts blurred some of the distinctions between Asperger's and Kanner's descriptions because she included some mildly retarded children and some children who presented with language delays early in life . </P> <P> The first systematic studies appeared in the late 1980s in publications by Tantam (1988) in the UK, Gillberg and Gilbert in Sweden (1989), and Szatmari, Bartolucci and Bremmer (1989) in North America . The diagnostic criteria for AS were outlined by Gillberg and Gillberg in 1989; Szatmari also proposed criteria in 1989 . Asperger's work became more widely available in English when Uta Frith, an early researcher of Kannerian autism, translated his original paper in 1991 . AS became a distinct diagnosis in 1992, when it was included in the 10th published edition of the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD - 10); in 1994, it was added to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM - IV) as Asperger's Disorder . When Hans Asperger observed the autistic like symptoms and behaviors in boys through their social and communication skills, many professionals felt like Asperger's syndrome was just a less severe form of autism . Uta Frith was one of these professionals who had this opinion . She was a professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience of University College London, and was also an editor of Autism and Asperger Syndrome . She said that individuals with Asperger's had a "dash of autism". She was one of the first scientists who recognized autism and related disorders as the result of a condition of the brain instead of the outcome of detached parenting . </P>

Where did the term asperger's come from