Early intervention for infants with autistic spectrum disorders in Japan

To date, many researchers in Japan have assumed that the cause of autistic spectrum disorders is attributable to some disorder in the ability of the child. However, we have been working on the premise that autistic spectrum disorders are brought about by relationship disturbances in early infancy and have been attempting to validate this hypothesis through early intervention.

We have examined the developmental process of affective communication in infants with autistic spectrum disorders. We have postulated that approach-avoidance motivational conflict (Richer) is the primary factor impeding the development of affective communication and have focused therapeutic intervention on this perspective.

As a result, attachment behavior was markedly improved in children, but affective communication with their mothers was not. Examing the mothers' images of themselves in infancy in mother-infant psychotherapy, problems that the mothers had themselves in infacy with attachment behavior to their own mothers affected the mothers' internal representation of their children, leading to active evolution of mother-child interaction and development of affective communication between the mother and child.

In this context, the basis and significance of the internal representation of both parties being determinants in the quality of mother-child communication are discussed. Our goal in early intervention is not the elevation of a child's linguistic-cognitive abilities, but the creation of a comforting relationship in which both parent and child can live securely, without strain.