Elizabeth: A Case Study of an Autistic Child in Individual Music Therapy

Since Kanner first described the pattern of abnormal behaviour he termed ‘early infantile autism’ (1943) there have been widespread advances in our understanding of the nature of the condition. Kanner's initial view was that autism was a constitutionally determined developmental disorder. This soon gave way to the idea that it was a psychosis, an early manifestation of schizophrenia.