when was autism first identified

Autism was first identified as a distinct condition in 1943 by the Austrian- American psychiatrist Leo Kanner. He described a group of children with unique symptoms such as difficulty communicating, lack of social skills, and repetitive behaviors, calling the condition "early infantile autism." Prior to this, the term "autism" was used by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1911, but to describe a symptom of schizophrenia rather than a separate disorder. There were also earlier observations of autism-like behaviors, including a documented case in 1799 by Jean Itard, but the formal identification as an independent condition is credited to Kanner's work in the 1940s.