when was autism spectrum disorder discovered?
<answer> Autism spectrum disorder was discovered in 1944. <context> Bleuler also decided that autism was a symptom of schizophrenia rather than a generically different disorder as Freud insisted. Modern psychiatry has sided with Freud on this. In 1944, Leo Kanner broadened the diagnosis of autism to be a spectrum disorder so that mild cases could be diagnosed as autism. He and Hans Asperger simultaneously discovered the existence of mild autism.