Donald Gray “Don” Triplett, the first person to be formally diagnosed with autism, died Thursday after an illness.

Triplet, from Mississippi, was the influential 1943 subject (“Case 1”) of Austrian-American psychiatrist Leo Kanner. paper, “Autism Impaired Emotional Contact”. When Triplett was just five years old, her parents took her to Johns Hopkins University’s Kanner Clinic for observation. In the paper, Triplett was described as a child who “could hum and sing many songs accurately” and had an “abnormal memory for faces and names” by the age of two. . He also said, “I was happiest when I was alone.” “I came to like spinning things.” I went to,” the article reads in part. . According to the newspaper, he also showed a talent for playing the piano from an early age. Dr. Kanner said in the paper that the triplet and 10 other cases were characterized by “extreme autistic loneliness.” (Related article: ‘Terrible’: Experts believe most children seeking gender reassignment are actually autistic)

Donald Triplett, first diagnosed with autism, dies at 89 https://t.co/Q8BWGKO6Zr

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Triplett said he attended Millsaps College before working at Bank of Forest, which his maternal grandfather co-founded, for about 65 years. obituary and forest bank facebook post About the life and work of the triplets. According to his obituary, Triplett was an avid golfer, a church singer with “perfect pitch”, and an extensive traveler. His obituary reveals that he was good at giving nicknames and numbers to his acquaintances, which he “remembered and repeated eagerly” and whom he called “Don Numbers.” He was the subject of a book shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.In a Different Key: The Story of Autismby John Donban and Karen Zucker, PBS Documentary of the same title.

According to the obituary, Donald was bequeathed to his parents Beeman and Mary, his older brother and only brother Oliver, and nephew Cooper, who died after a long illness and were survived by other relatives, including his sister-in-law Carolyn. It is said that .

Autism cannot be definitively diagnosed by medical examination, but is diagnosed by observing a child’s development.