Case Study of the Development of an Infant with Autism from Birth to Two Years of Age
Section snippets
Case report
The infant with autism (or I.A.) lived at home with his parents, two older brothers, and one younger brother. At the time this report was written, I.A. was a toddler. I.A.'s father reportedly had motor coordination and attention problems. According to a parental report, the father's sister was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. I.A.'s mother reported being shy as a child. I.A.'s oldest brother had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome based on a multidisciplinary
Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised
The Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised (ADI-R; Lord, Rutter, & LeCouteur, 1994) was scored by the first author. I.A.'s total score was 27.5. He clearly met diagnostic criteria for autism based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised. In the domain of reciprocal social interaction, the following symptoms were present: B1—failure to use direct gaze (42), to engage in social smiling (43), and to use a range of facial expressions (52) to regulate social interaction; B2—failure to show interest
Discussion
In this report, we describe the development of an infant with autism from birth through 2 years of age. At 2 years of age, this child met DMS-IV criteria for autism and, on standardized tests, exhibited below average nonverbal ability along with significantly delayed skills in verbal ability. Thus, this 2-year-old toddler with autism was not globally mentally retarded. Instead, even at this early age, he displayed the uneven cognitive profile of higher visual–spatial than verbal skills that is
Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the contribution of the parents of this child who generously shared their knowledge and experience to the benefit of other parents and professionals in the field of autism. This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (grant PO1HD34565). Leslie Carver provided feedback on an earlier version of this paper.
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