Donald Gray Triplett was an American known for being the first person diagnosed with autism. He was first diagnosed by Leo Kanner, and was labeled as “Case 1”.
Who is Donald Triplett? Mississippi native and first person diagnosed with autism dies at 89
Donald Triplett, a Mississippi native known as the first person diagnosed with autism, passed away at the age of 89.
Triplett, who lived most of his life in his hometown of Forest, passed away Thursday, according to a Facebook post from State Representative Tom Miles.
Triplett was born in Forest on September 8, 1933. At the age of four years old, his parents committed him to a state institution after noticing developmental delays but withdrew him a year later. In 1938, Triplett was examined by child psychiatrist Dr. Leo Kanner at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, prompting Kanner’s quest to diagnose Triplett’s symptoms.
By 1943, Kanner had seen 10 children with similar symptoms to Triplett. In his article “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact,” Kanner referred to Triplett as “Case 1” when outlining the disorder that later became known as autism.