Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children.

Abstract

Autism is a serious psychological disorder with onset in early childhood. Autistic children show minimal emotional ttachment, absent or abnormal speech, retarded IQ, ritualistic behaviors, ag-gression, and self-injury. The prognosis i very poor, and medical therapies have not proven effective. This article reports the results of behavior modification treatment for two groups of similarly consti-tuted, young autistic hildren. Follow-up data from an intensive, long-term experimental reatment group (n = 19) showed that 47 % achieved normal intellectual nd educational functioning, with normal-range IQ scores and successful first grade performance in public schools. Another 40 % were mildly retarded and assigned to special classes for the language delayed, and only 10 % were pro-foundly retarded and assigned to classes for the autistic/retarded. In contrast, only 2 % of the control-group children (n = 40) achieved normal educational nd intellectual functioning; 45 % were mildly retarded and placed in language-delayed classes, and 53 % were severely retarded and placed in autis-tic/retarded classes. Kanner (1943) defined autistic hildren as children who ex-hibit (a) serious failure to develop relationships with other peo-ple before 30 months of age, (b) problems in development of