Autistic children’s co-ordination of gaze and talk: Re-examining the ‘asocial’ autist

Abstract

Autism is generally conceptualized as a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in life-long disability and high care requirements for the majority of individuals concerned. In the UK there are around 500 000 persons so diagnosed (NAS 1999), attracting much research interest. Contemporary accounts of Autism emerging from both research and practitioner perspectives draw upon ‘Wing’s triad of impairments’ (e.g. Wing 1993): ‘core’ categories referring to impairments in language, social interaction and, more variably, imagination/flexible thinking. Their presence, which may be accompanied by a host of other ‘secondary’ symptoms, are central to the diagnosis of the syndrome; they underpin and validate most taxonomic and psychiatric classificatory systems of Autism e.g. DSM IV (APA 1995) and ICD-10 (WHO 1993).