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What is autism?

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Autism

Part of the book series: Therapy in Practice Series ((TPS))

Abstract

‘Please explain, in just a few words, exactly what is autism’. This request, made by journalists or radio or television interviewers, inevitably produces a sinking of the heart in the hapless informant. Autism is the name given to a behaviour pattern, produced in a complicated way, as the end result of a long chain of causation and there is no way of explaining it in a few words. But, given the luxury of a whole chapter devoted to the task, justice can be done to the strange story of the nature and causes of autism and how it fits into the wide range of disorders of development of psychological functions.

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Further Reading

  • Cohen, D.J., Donnellan, A. and Paul, R. (eds) (1987) Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Winston-Wiley, New York.

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  • Coleman, M. and Gillberg, C. (1985) The Biology of the Autistic Syndromes, Praeger, New York.

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  • DeMyer, M. (1979) Parents and Children in Autism, Winston-Wiley, Washington.

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  • Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,issued quarterly by Plenum Press, New York and London.

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  • Kanner, L. (1973) Childhood Psychosis: Initial Studies and New Insights, Winston-Wiley, New York.

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  • Schopler, E. and Mesibov, G. (eds) (1988) Diagnosis and Assessment in Autism, Plenum, New York.

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  • Wing, L. (ed.) (1988) Aspects of Autism: Biological Research, Gaskell, London.

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  • Wing, L. (ed.) (1976) Early Childhood Autism, 2nd edn, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

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Authors
  1. Lorna Wing
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The National Autistic Society, UK

    Kathryn Ellis (Family Services Coordinator) (Family Services Coordinator)

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© 1990 Kathryn Ellis

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Wing, L. (1990). What is autism?. In: Ellis, K. (eds) Autism. Therapy in Practice Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6924-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6924-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-61450-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6924-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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