Language Disorder and Infantile Autism

Abstract

Since Kanner (1943) first described the syndrome of infantile autism in 1943 there have been major changes in the concepts of the disorder and in methods of treatment. Perhaps the most striking shift of all has been the move from seeing autism as a condition involving social and emotional withdrawal to a view of autism as a disorder of development involving severe cognitive deficits which probably have their origin in some form of organic brain dysfunction (Rutter, 1974). The fact that autistic children do indeed have basic abnormalities in specific aspects of cognitive functioning is no longer in serious dispute. There is abundant evidence in support of this postulate. Research attention has now shifted to the further questions which arise from the observation that cognitive deficits exist. We need to go on to determine the nature and boundaries of the cognitive deficit, the mechanisms by which it is assoicated with social and emotional abnormalities shown by autistic children, and the biological basis of the cognitive dysfunction.