ABSTRACT
While autism was first written about in Europe in the 1940s, there have been stories of suspected cases of autism documented as early as 1724 (Feinstein, 2010). Autism exists all over the world. On World Autism Awareness Day in 2013, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated, “Autism is not limited to a single region or country; it is a worldwide challenge that requires global action. This international attention is essential to address stigma, lack of awareness and inadequate support structures” (Smith, 2014). Autism exists in all cultures, but the neurobiological expression of autism spectrum disorder can look different in different cultures. Autism is truly a spectrum disorder, not just in the level of severity, but also in the symptoms that are most commonly observed in different cultures. Until recently, the importance of culture was generally ignored in relation to autism, both in diagnosis and treatment (Daley, 2002). At the same time, there was a misconception in some countries outside of North America and Europe that autism was the result of modernization and it did not exist outside of “Western” countries (Daley & Sigman, 2002; Hudec, 2012). This belief is still present amongst some people in African and Asian countries. The general diagnosis of ASD around the world is based on whether behavior deviates from what is considered typical in that culture, but there is less consensus among research where the line between behavior differences lies and the diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (Freeth, Milne, Sheppard, & Ramachandran, 2014; Grinker, 2008).
