ABSTRACT

Autism or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) comprise a spectrum of severe developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders that are usually apparent by the age of 3 years. Kanner gave the first detailed description of autism in his paper ‘Autistic disturbances of affective contact’ in 1943. From her field research, Wing later drew up a triad of behavioural criteria for the diagnosis of autistic disorder, as shown in the box.