Autistic Conditions in Early Childhood: A Survey in Middlesex

was the first to point out that one particu- lar syndrome of abnormal behaviour could be separated from the previously undifferentiated group of childhood psychoses. Children with the syndrome (called early infantile autism) were distinguished by three outstanding characteristics: lack of responsiveness to other human beings-that is, " autism "-an insistence on the preservation of sameness in the environment, and an onset in the first two years of life. The children were attractive and alert in appearance, and Kanner believed they were not intellectually subnormal, though their functional abilities were grossly impaired. Their parents in most cases seemed vocationally successful and intelligent.