ABSTRACT
When first described by Leo Kanner (1943), two types of psychological dysfunction were said to underlie characteristic autistic behavior: “autistic aloneness” and “an obsessive insistence on sameness.” Current diagnostic criteria have not substantially altered the defining characteristics of the disorder. They require that an individual demonstrate impairments in three behavioral domains: (i) reciprocal social interaction; (ii) verbal and nonverbal communication, and in imaginative activity; and (iii) a markedly restricted repertoire of activities and interests (DSM-IV: APA, 1994; ICD-10: WHO, 1993). Despite the initial interest shown by the early pioneers of experimental psychological research into autism in the third axis of impairments, which includes sensory, perceptual, attentional, and repetitive behaviors (Frith, 1970, 1972; Hermelin & O’Connor, 1964; Lovaas, Schreibman, Koegel, & Rehm, 1971; Ornitz, 1969; Ritvo, Ornitz, & La Fanchi, 1968), more recent concentration of research efforts on the social and communicative impairments has resulted in the relative disregard of these third-axis behaviors (Rutter, 1996).
