During that time, a consensus developed among autism researchers that the reason Kanner never discussed Asperger’s work was that the two men had described two very different groups of children—one “high-functioning” (Asperger) and the other “low-functioning” (Kanner). Though Asperger had made clear that he had seen children (as well as adults) at all levels of ability his paper had not yet been translated into English, and the fact that he had intentionally highlighted his “most promising” cases to deflect the wrath of the Nazis was still unknown.
