Childhood autism. A review of the clinical and experimental literature.

This review of the literature on childhood autism discusses the clinical characteristics, differential diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of the autistic behavioral syndrome from a developmental perspective. It includes a discussion of the influence of prenatal and perinatal antecedents, genetic and socio-familial factors, and epidemiologic considerations. Neurologic, electro-encephalographic and experimental neurophysiologic, metabolic, biochemical and hematologic investigations are reviewed. Special emphasis has been given to the changing clinical manifestations which accompany maturation and to the problems of recognition of childhood autism in the very young child.