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Quasi-autistic Patterns Following Severe Early Global Privation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1999

Michael Rutter ,
Lucie Andersen-Wood ,
Celia Beckett ,
Diana Bredenkamp ,
Jenny Castle ,
Christine Groothues ,
Jana Kreppner ,
Lisa Keaveney ,
Catherine Lord  and
Thomas G. O'Connor
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Michael Rutter
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Lucie Andersen-Wood
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Celia Beckett
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Diana Bredenkamp
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Jenny Castle
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Christine Groothues
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Jana Kreppner
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Lisa Keaveney
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Catherine Lord
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Thomas G. O'Connor
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) Study Team
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit and Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
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Abstract

Six per cent of child in a sample of 111 children who were adopted into U.K. families from Romania, and who were systematically assessed at the ages of 4 and 6 years, showed autistic-like patterns of behaviour. A further 6% showed milder (usually isolated) autistic features. Such autistic characteristics were not found in a similarly studied sample of 52 children adopted in the first 6 months of life within the U.K. The children from Romania with autistic patterns showed clinical features closely similar to “ordinary” autism at 4 years but they differed with respect to the improvement seen by age 6 years, to an equal sex ratio, and to a normal head circumference. The children from Romania with autistic features tended to differ from the other Romanian adoptees with respect to a greater degree of cognitive impairment and a longer duration of severe psychological privation.

Keywords

Autisminstitutional carepsychological privationcognitive impairmentpreschool childrensocial deficitsrepetitive behaviourcircumscribed interestssensory preoccupations
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , May 1999 , pp. 537 - 549
Copyright
© 1999 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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