A pair of classically early infantile autistic siblings.

This case study describes in detail two autistic siblings who were mentioned in Rimland's analysis of checklists for psychotic children, as the only pair of classically early infantile autistic siblings (Rimland, 1971). One of the children, a nonverbal girl, now 13 years old, who developed epileptic seizures at age 41/2, shows all symptoms of early infantile autism even today. Her brother, now 24 years old, however, does not fit any of the known psychopathological patterns of childhood. The boy showed all symptoms of early infantile autism, but also some of the main characteristics of childhood schizophrenia and austic psychopathy. It is suggested that we are dealing perhaps with an unusual mixed type falling within a broad category of genetically determined types of autistic disorders.