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Autism pp 379–411Cite as

Treating Autistic Children in a Family Context

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Abstract

Infantile autism is a complex disorder which involves abnormalities of development and of behavior, both of which need to be taken into account in planning any type of treatment program. During the 1960s there was an increasing number of reports of the successful use of behavioral techniques in alleviating these many and various problems in individual children. Operant approaches were employed to aid the development of positive or normal features such as imitation, eye contact, social skills, speech usage and communication (Hingtgen et al., 1965, 1967; Hingtgen & Trost, 1966; Lovaas, 1966, 1967; Lovaas et al., 1965b, Metz 1965; McConnell, 1967; Halpern, 1970; Mathis, 1971; Risley & Wolf, 1967; Sloane et al., 1968). Operant procedures were also used to eliminate a wide range of deviant behaviors including self-injury, temper tantrums, aggressive behavior, hyperactivity, encopresis, and negativism (Lovaas et al., 1965a, b, 1966; Tate & Baroff, 1966; Graziano, 1970; Wetzel et al., 1966; Wolf et al., 1964, 1967; Maier, 1971; Marshall, 1966; Sulzbacher & Costello, 1970; Brown & Pace, 1969). It became clear that operant approaches provided a useful set of therapeutic interventions which could achieve fairly rapid results in terms of alteration of specific behaviors, if the child was treated daily by skilled professionals on a one-to-one basis in a well-controlled inpatient setting.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF, Denmark Hill, London, England

    R. Hemsley, P. Howlin, M. Rutter & W. Yule

  2. Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, WC1, London, England

    M. Berger

  3. The Maudsley Hospital, SE5 8AF, Denmark Hill, London, England

    L. Hersov & D. Holbrook

Authors
  1. R. Hemsley
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  2. P. Howlin
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  3. M. Berger
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  4. L. Hersov
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  5. D. Holbrook
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  6. M. Rutter
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  7. W. Yule
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, London, England

    Michael Rutter

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Division of Health Affairs, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Eric Schopler

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© 1978 Plenum Press, New York

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Hemsley, R. et al. (1978). Treating Autistic Children in a Family Context. In: Rutter, M., Schopler, E. (eds) Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0787-7_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0787-7_26

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-0789-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-0787-7

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