Treatment of autistic children (Wiley series on studies on child psychiatry)

This major contribution to the understanding of autism, gives a clearly written account of the objectives, principles and methods of treating autistic children in their own homes. It combines clinically sensitive, practical approaches for dealing with a wide range of problems, and a "hard-headed" research evaluation of how much can be achieved by such treatment methods. The treatment programmes discussed in this book, are individually designed for each child with the help of the parents who act as the principal therapists and are derived from both developmental and behavioural psychology. In addition to evaluating the progress made by individual children, the authors compare the outcome against matched group controls to assess the most overall effective treatment. The results of the study are discussed both in terms of their practical relevance and also their theoretical implications for the understanding of the nature of autism.