Autistic disturbances of affective contact

Autistic disturbances of affective contact

Nervous Child 2, 217-250 (1943)

Kanner L.

Johns Hopkins University, Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic and the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children, the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Child Study Center of Maryland.

“Case 3. Richard M. was referred to the Johns Hopkins Hospital on February 5, 1941, at 3 years, 3 months of age, with the complaint of deafness because he did not talk and did not respond to questions.”

“Following smallpox vaccination at 12 months, he had an attack of diarrhea and fever, from which he recovered in somewhat less than a week.”

“In September, 1940, the mother, in commenting on Richard’s failure to talk, remarked in her notes: I can’t be sure just when he stopped the imitation of words sounds. It seems that he has gone backward mentally gradually for the last two years.”

Richard M:

November 1937 – Born
November 1938 – Vaccinated with Smallpox vaccine

September 1940 – Mother reports developmental regression beginning approximately two years previously

February 1941 – Referred to Hopkins for evaluation

1943 – Becomes the third child to be described as autistic by Leo Kanner in his disorder defining paper, the first paper published on autism.