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).