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Autism in Brazil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Autism in Brazil has had a number of manifestations since the 20th century. It was introduced through child psychiatry with the predominant influence of psychoanalysis in medical care in the mid-1950s. The development of a community based on autism was late, with the founding of the Associação de Amigos do Autista (AMA) in 1983. Since then, autism has become a topic of interest for family members, health professionals and autistic people with the predominance of a neurobiological view of the diagnosis.
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Before there were initiatives aimed at diagnosis, autism appeared in newspaper headlines translated by news agencies. In the 1970s, some of the first congresses and institutions focussed on autism emerged. In the 1980s, the disorder began to gain greater public visibility with the emergence of associations founded by mothers and fathers, such as AMA and, later, the Associação Brasileira de Autismo (Abra). In the 1990s and 2000s, the popularisation of autism developed in different states of the country, while the first legislation was developed. At the end of the 2000s, discussions began about creating a national law on autism. In the 2010s, the National Policy for the Protection of the Rights of People with Autism Spectrum Disorders was sanctioned, while autistic people began to participate with greater emphasis in institutional activism, as well as the creation of media about autism.
The autism scene in Brazil is also characterised by tensions and conflicts between activists and organisations on issues such as health interventions, special education and autism representation. Until the 2020s, there was no prevalence of autism in the Brazilian population. For this reason, estimates based on figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were common in manifestos and journalistic texts.