ABSTRACT
Infantile autism is a severe disorder of development which was first described systematically by Kanner. This chapter describes the methods used in a study designed to compare the effects of three different approaches to the education of autistic children. It focuses on the issues involved in the measurement of staff-child interaction in units for children with severe developmental handicaps, rather than on the progress of the children. In assessing the utility of measures of interaction it is important to know that there were major differences between the units in the progress of the children. The special units which had been set up for autistic children in the United Kingdom varied considerably in their theoretical orientation, emphasis on formal teaching, degree of structure, segregation or mixing with other children, and in the type of relationship the staff provided for the children.
