History
The Childhood Autism Foundation, Inc. (CADEF) was founded in 1985 by a group of Atlanta area parents and community leaders who were concerned about the lack of services for individuals in Georgia with autism.
Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals affected by autism, through the development of resources which provide opportunities for diagnosis, treatment, education, training, social involvement and research. When CADEF was founded, there were virtually no services for autism in Georgia. Most distressing to parents of autistic children was that few people, including people in the medical profession, knew much about autism.
Intelligent, yet socially maladroit children
Autism was first described in 1943 by a Johns Hopkins' psychiatrist Leo Kanner and again by an Austrian pediatrician, Hans Asperger. Kanner applied the term to children who were socially withdrawn and preoccupied with routine and who struggled to acquire spoken language; yet, these children often seemed to display intellectual gifts that were inconsistent with mental retardation.
Asperger applied the term to children who were socially maladroit, who developed bizarre obsessions, and yet were highly verbal and apparently quite intelligent. Asperger noted that the disorder often appeared to be hereditary. After a lull in scientific interest in autism during World War II, studies began to focus on possible irregularities in brain anatomy and functioning, and theories of heredity contributing to autism susceptibility began to be tested.
There is a lack of knowledge about autism
It became accepted that autism was a neurological disorder that caused unusual patterns of social, language and behavioral development; however, no one knew exactly what caused it. Until recently, children rarely were diagnosed before the age of four and often much older.
The lack of knowledge and understanding about autism was a major obstacle faced by the founders of CADEF, and it is amazing what has been accomplished by what was started by a small group of concerned individuals.
A great deal has been accomplished by CADEF since the early beginning in 1985, but there is still so much to be done.
We hope you will join us in assisting families affected by this lifelong, debilitating condition.
Stephanie Christiansen
Executive Director