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Infantile autism reviewed: a decade of research
Insights
Autism is a developmental disorder with severe deficits, though its exact relation to other disorders is unclear. Behavioral interventions show gains, but adult self-support remains a challenge, with neurobiological factors suspected as causes.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Infantile autism research over a decade has advanced understanding of its classification, diagnosis, and characteristics.
- Autism is now widely recognized as a developmental disorder with significant intellectual and behavioral deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review progress in infantile autism research over the past decade.
- To delineate autism's relationship with other developmental disorders and mental retardation.
- To identify key areas for future research in autism.
Main Methods:
- Comprehensive literature review of studies on infantile autism.
- Analysis of research across various domains including genetics, neurobiology, and treatment.
- Comparative assessment of autistic children with normal and mentally retarded children.
Main Results:
- Perceptual, cognitive, and language deficits are central to autism, with unknown underlying mechanisms.
- Autistic children exhibit more signs of brain dysfunction compared to neurotypical children.
- Systematic behavioral/educational approaches are the preferred treatment, yielding gains but often with poor long-term prognosis for self-support.
Conclusions:
- Autism is a complex developmental disorder with persistent deficits, likely rooted in neurobiological factors.
- Further comparative studies are needed to clarify autism's distinct profile and test neurobiological hypotheses.
- Parental psychopathology is not considered a cause of autism.
Abstract:
Progress in the study of infantile autism over the past 10 years was reviewed in terms of classification and diagnosis, relation to other disorders, demographics, parental characteristics, genetics, intelligence, language, perceptual processes, behavioral characteristics, neurobiological, biochemical and pharmacological aspects, behavioral/educational treatment methodologies, prognosis, and theoretical considerations. This decade's research led to the now generally accepted position that infantile autism is a type of developmental disorder accompanied by severe and, to a large extent, permanent intellectual/behavioral deficits. However, its relationship to other forms of developmental disorders and to mental retardation remains to be delineated. Perceptual/cognitive/language defects appear central to the autistic syndrome, but the specific underlying mechanisms are unknown. Most studies indicate that autistic children have more signs of brain dysfunction than do normal children and about the same number as mentally retarded children. The overwhelming evidence suggests that te treatment of choice for maximal benefit to autistic children is a systematic, intrusive behavioral/educational approach. Yet, in spite of significant gains in almost all children treated, the typical prognostic picture is poor in terms of achieving self-supportive adulthood. The parents of autistic children have been found to be essentially similar to parents of children with organic brain disorders, and manifest no psychopathology which conceivably could induce the disorder. The vast majority of theoretical articles appearing in the 1970s proposed some from of neurobiological defect as the causative factor in autism. One of the major goals for future research is to undertake more extensive comparative studies on nonautistic brain dysfunctional children and autistic children that could yield cleared differential behavioral profiles and testable neurobiological hypotheses.