[Clinical ethology: a study of stereotypies]

According to ethological procedures and concepts, the author tries to describe the shape and the functional value of stereotyped movements in disabled children. These pathological behaviors are not a fixed response, they take place within an intricate behavioral sequence which associates many items; they are one aspect of a pathological answer to social stimulation. They prove the disabled child's intense motivation to communicate, but show the impossibility for him to do so. The inability to generate an adapted behavioral sequence shows that the deficit concerns an essential interaction process.