Abstract
A treatment plan focusing on the social and interpersonal life of autistic children is described. It was devised and implemented based upon the idea that there is a continuum between autistic children and normal children. The observations that autistic children have decreased tendencies to approach and increased tendencies to withdraw in social situations but that they do have some capacity for interpersonal approach and that all of the observable behavior patterns seen in autistic children occur to some extent in normal children were implemented in the development of this treatment approach. A new level of therapeutic contact, the “corrective autistic experience”, is hypothesized. The treatment of ten autistic children over a five-year period is summarized.
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This study was supported in part by NIMH Education Grant: Child Psychiatry MH15295-02, Psychiatric Training for Pediatric House Staff MH14382-03, and General Psychiatry Training Grant MH21892.
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Kramer, D.A., Anderson, R.B. & Westman, J.C. The corrective autistic experience: An application of the models of tinbergen and mahler. Child Psych Hum Dev 15, 104–120 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706167
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706167