ABSTRACT
Introduction There can be no doubt that, in his relation to objects, the child with autism is
both fascinated and fascinating. Leo Kanner (1943) gave ‘fascination with objects’
as one of his six defining features of early childhood autism and described the
children he had observed as having a ‘skilful relationship to objects’. Persistent
preoccupation with, specific attachment to and restricted, repetitive use of
objects are given in the diagnostic criteria for autism of ICD-10 (World Health
Organisation, 1992) and DCM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).