Abstract
Since Kanner first described the syndrome of autism in 1943, there has been substantial progress in the diagnosis and classification of the disorder (see chapter by Rutter and Schopler, this volume). As a result, both ICD-9 (World Health Organization, 1978) and DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), the two major systems of psychiatric classification, broadly agree on the main features to be taken into account in diagnosis. In essence, the main weight is placed on a particular type of deviance in language, a particular type of deviance in social relationships, and particular patterns of repetitive and stereotyped behaviour, together with developmental abnormalities that have been evident from before the age of 30 months. The recently published guidelines for DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) and the draft guidelines for ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1987) follow the same general principles, although both have attempted to provide somewhat greater specification on the patterns of abnormality in these areas that are thought to be most characteristic of autism. In addition, because of practical difficulties in the application of the 30-month cutoff for developmental abnormalities, this has been raised to 3 years of age. Most of the published interview, questionnaire, and observational methods of assessment (see Rutter and Schopler, Chapter 2, this volume) have focused similarly on these diagnostic features, although they differ somewhat in their emphasis. Most have been primarily concerned with the diagnosis of autism in mentally handicapped children, as the majority of autistic individuals show some degree of mental retardation. The instruments have been developed with the main aim of making diagnoses for treatment purposes or for decisions on placement in different service facilities. The instruments work reasonably well in meeting these objectives, but there are now new purposes that require some modification in methods of assessment. This chapter describes some measures developed to meet these emerging needs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—DSM-III (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—DSM-III (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, D.C.; American Psychiatric Association.
Attwood, T. (1986). Do autistic children have unique learning problems. Communication, 20, 9–11.
August, G. J., Steward, M. A., & Tsai, L. (1981). The incidence of cognitive disabilities in the siblings of autistic children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 416–22.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1988). Social and pragmatic deficits in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?. Cognition, 21, 37–46.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M. & Frith, U. (1986). Mechanical, behavioral and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 113–25.
Bartak, L., Rutter, M. & Cox, A. (1975). A comparative study of infantile autism and specific developmental receptive language disorder. I. The children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 127–42.
Bemporad, J. R. (1979). Adult recollections of a formerly autistic child. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 179–98.
Bregman, J. D., Dykens, E., Watson, M., Ort, S. I., & Leckman, J. F. (1987). Fragile X syndrome: Variability of phenotypic expression. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 463–71.
Brown, G. W., & Rutter, M. (1966). The measurement of family activities and relationships: A methodological study. Human Relations, 19, 241–63.
Brown, W. T., Jenkins, E. C., Cohen, I. L., Fisch, G. S., Wolf-Schein, E. G., Gross, A., Waterhouse, L., Fein, D., Mason-Brothers, A., Ritvo, E., et al. (1985). Fragile X and autism: A multicenter survey. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 23, 341–52.
Cromer, R. F. (1987). Language acquisition. In W. Yule & M. Rutter (Eds.), Language Development and Disorders. (Clinics in Developmental Medicine, No 101/102). London: MacKeith Press/Blackwell Scientific.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1976). Pictures of facial affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.
Fleiss, J. L. (1986). The design and analysis of clinical experiments. New York: Wiley.
Folstein, S. & Rutter, M. (1977). Infantile autism: A genetic study of 21 twin pairs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 18, 297–321.
Folstein, S. & Rutter, M. (1987). Family aggregation and genetic implication. In E. Schopler & G. Mesibov (Eds.), Neurobiological issues in autism (pp. 83–105). New York: Plenum.
Gillberg, C. (1985). Asperger’s syndrome and recurrent psychosis—A case study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 15, 389–97.
Graham, P. & Rutter, M. (1968). The reliability and validity of the psychiatric assessment of the child. II. Interview with the parent. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 581–92.
Hagberg, B., Aicardi, J., Dias, K., & Ramos, O. (1983). A progressive syndrome of autism, dementia, ataxia and loss of purposeful hand use in girls: Rett’s syndrome: Report of 35 cases. Annals of Neurology, 14, 471–9.
Hermelin, B., & O’Connor, N. (1970). Psychological experiments with autistic children. Oxford: Pergamon.
Hobson, R. P. (1983). The autistic child’s recognition of age-related features of people, animal and things. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1, 343–52.
Hobson, R. P. (1984). Early childhood autism and the question of egocentrism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14, 85–104.
Hobson, R. P. (1986). The autistic child’s appraisal of expressions of emotion. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 321–42.
Hobson, R. P. (1988). Beyond cognition: A theory of autism. In G. Dawson (Ed.), New perspectives on diagnosis, nature and treatment. New York: Guilford.
Le Couteur, A., Rutter, M., Lord, C., Rios, P., Robertson, S., Holdgrafter, M., & McLennen, J. D. (in press). Autism diagnostic interview: A standardized investigator-based instrument. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Le Couteur, A., Rutter, M., Summers, D., & Butler, L. (in press). Letter: Fragile X in female autistic twins. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Lockyer, L., & Rutter, M. (1969). A five to fifteen year follow up study of infantile psychosis. IV. Patterns of cognitive ability. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 152–63.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., Goode, S., Heemsbergen, J., Jordan, J., Mawhood, L., & Schopler, E. (in press). Autism diagnostic observation schedule: A standardized observation of communictive and social behaviour. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Macdonald, H., Rutter, M., Howlin, P., Rios, P., Le Couteur, A., Evered, C., & Folstein, S. (1988). Recognition and expression of emotional cues in autistic and normal adults. Submitted.
Olsson, B., & Rett, A. (1985). Behavioral observations concerning differential diagnosis between the Rett syndrome and autism. Brain Development, 7, 281–9.
Quinton, D., Rutter, M., & Rowlands O. (1976). An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriage. Psychological Medicine, 6, 577–86.
Reiss, A. L., Feinstein, C., & Rosenbaum, K. N. (1986). Autism and genetic disorders, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 724–38.
Rutter, M., & Brown, G. W. (1966). The reliability and validity of measures of family life and relationships in families containing a psychiatric patient, Social Psychiatry, 1, 38–53.
Schopler, E. (1985). Editorial: Convergence of learning disability, higher-level autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 115, 359.
Szatmari, P., Bartolucci, G., Finlayson, A., & Krames, L. (1986). A vote for Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 16, 515–17.
Wing, L. (1981). Asperger’s syndrome: A clinical account. Psychological Medicine, 11, 115–30.
Wing, L., & Gould, J. (1979). Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 11–30.
Witt-Engerstrom, I., & Gillberg, C. (1987). Rett syndrome in Sweden. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 17, 149–50.
Wolff, S., & Barlow, A. (1979). Schizoid personality in childhood: A comparative study of schizoid, autistic and mentally retarded children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20, 29–46.
Wolff, S., & Chick, J. (1980). Schizoid personality in childhood: A controlled follow-up study. Psychological Medicine, 10, 85–100.
World Health Organization. (1978). International Classification of Diseases (9th rev.). Geneva: World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (1987). ICD-10 1986 Draft of Chapter V: Categories F00-F99 Mental, Behavioural and Developmental Disorders. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rutter, M., LeCouteur, A., Lord, C., Macdonald, H., Rios, P., Folstein, S. (1988). Diagnosis and Subclassification of Autism. In: Schopler, E., Mesibov, G.B. (eds) Diagnosis and Assessment in Autism. Current Issues in Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0792-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0792-9_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0794-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0792-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive