"...we never heard of autism..."
Autism is the Hyper Active Disorder of the day. As a scout leader in the 90s I had nearly a whole troop of dump ‘em off Ritalin doped up wild things. They ruined scouting for me and my son. We found we were both hanging on for one another and both hating it so we gave it up.
Writers write, talkers talk, doctors doctor etc. If nobody reads, listens or gets sick etc. there is nothing for them to do.