Autism has notoriously evolved from the 1940s, when it was a very rare developmental disorder of children, to the present day, when it is a not uncommon, but lifelong, condition. How autistic people think of themselves has changed. How families relate to members with autistic traits today is very different from a previous generation. Schools, social services, surroundings: everything is new, and much is still in flux. We now speak of autism spectrum disorders, or (to conceal our ignorance) acronymically as ASDs. The "spectrum" itself has evolved in the living memory of many people.
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