ABSTRACT
Autism was first described by Kanner, an American psychiatrist, in 1943, through the presentation of a number of case studies of children who shared certain characteristics: ‘autistic aloneness’ and ‘desire for sameness’. In addition, Kanner identified ‘islets of ability’ in some of these children, such as phenomenal memory for poems or names and precise recall of complex patterns. The difficulties experienced by children with autism were systematically investigated across a whole population of children by Wing and Gould (1979) and characterised as a ‘triad of impairments’: in reciprocal social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and imagination. The major international diagnostic classification systems, DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and ICD-10 (World Health Organisation, 1995), identified the following diagnostic indicators for autism:
1 Qualitative abnormalities in reciprocal social interaction: (a) inadequate use of nonverbal behaviours to regulate social interaction; (b) failure to develop age-appropriate peer relationships; (c) lack of social or emotional reciprocity; (d) little sharing of enjoyment, achievement or interests with others.
