Most Cited JCPP Articles #17 of 60

THE NATIONAL SOCIETY for Autistic Children’s (NSAC) behaviorally based definition of autism rests on the generally accepted premise that autism is a definable syndrome, which has been built on the careful documentation of behavioral similarities common to this particular group of children (Ritvo, 1979). When making a diagnosis of autism a number of specific behaviors (or symptoms) have been considered essential to the syndrome of autism and are included in a variety of diagnostic instruments (DeMyer et al, 1971). These instruments have not, however, established a reputation for performing reliably the task of differentiating betweeri autistic and other children with extreme behavior aberrations (David, 1975). Perhaps one reason why these instruments have performed so poorly is that all discretely identifiable behaviors, even those indentified as critical to the diagnosis of autism, also occur with some frequency in persons considered nonautistic (Kanner, 1958; Wolf, Wemar and Ruttenburg, 1972; Rutter and Schopler, 1978; Lotter’ 1974).