Are there more autistic people now?

The definition of autism has not been static. The first studies to describe autism appeared in the 1930s and 1940s, says Francesca Happé, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King's College London, who's been researching autism since 1988. "The original descriptions of autism are of children who have pretty high support needs, typically are very late to talk," she says. And the focus really was on children, of course, and largely on males." But the definition was broadened, Professor Happé says, when in the 1990s Asperger's syndrome was added to diagnostic manuals.