Tavistock Clinic and Institute of Child Health, 120 Belsize Lane, London, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2010 Nov;51(11):1235-41. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02274.x.
Atypical forms of autism may yield insights into the development and nature of the syndrome.
We conducted a follow-up study of nine congenitally blind and seven sighted children who, eight years earlier, had satisfied formal diagnostic criteria for autism and had been included in groups matched for chronological age and verbal ability. In keeping with the original study, we met with teachers to discuss a DSM-based checklist of clinical features of autism, and conducted direct observations of the children to complete assessments on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS; Schopler, Reichler, and Renner, 1986) and the Behavior Checklist for Disordered Preschoolers (BCDP; Sherman, Shapiro, & Glassman, 1983).
As predicted, a substantially higher proportion of blind (eight out of nine) than sighted (none out of seven) children now failed to meet formal DSM criteria for autism, and in keeping with BCDP ratings, they had significantly lower CARS scores.
Follow-up of nine congenitally blind children with autism revealed that, in adolescence, only one still satisfied diagnostic criteria for the syndrome. We consider the implications for theoretical perspectives on the development of autism.
非典型自闭症形式可能为自闭症的发展和本质提供新的见解。
我们对 9 名先天性失明和 7 名视力正常的儿童进行了随访研究，这些儿童在 8 年前满足自闭症的正式诊断标准，并被纳入与年龄和语言能力相匹配的组中。根据原始研究，我们与教师会面，讨论了基于 DSM 的自闭症临床特征检查表，并对儿童进行了直接观察，以完成儿童自闭症评定量表（CARS；Schopler、Reichler 和 Renner，1986）和学龄前儿童行为检查表（BCDP；Sherman、Shapiro 和 Glassman，1983）的评估。
正如预期的那样，现在有更多的失明（9 名中的 8 名）而不是视力正常（7 名中的 0 名）的儿童不再符合自闭症的正式 DSM 标准，而且与 BCDP 评分一致，他们的 CARS 得分明显更低。
对 9 名患有自闭症的先天性失明儿童进行的随访研究显示，在青春期，只有 1 名儿童仍符合该综合征的诊断标准。我们考虑了这对自闭症发展的理论观点的影响。
