Case study of the development of an infant with autism from birth to two years of age

This report describes a case study of the development of an infant with aut ism who was observed closely by professionals from birth and to whom a comp rehensive psychological evaluation was administered at approximately 1 and 2 years of age. During the first 6 months of life I this infant displayed d ifficulties in oral motor coordination and muscle tone that fluctuated betw een hypotonia and hypertonia. He startled easily, had poor state regulation , and was hypersensitive to touch. Notably, however, during the first 6 mon ths, this infant vocalized and responded socially to others by smiling and cooing. During the second half of the first year, he continued to demonstra te diffuse sensorimotor difficulties and diminished oral motor control. Hyp ersensitivity now extended to a wider range of stimuli. He had problems in sleep regulation. Motor stereotypies, including rocking, head banging, and toe walking, were observed. Difficulties in the domain of social interactio n began to emerge during the second 6 months, including poor eye contact, f ailure to engage in imitative games, and lack of imitative vocal responses. By a little over 1 pear of age, this infant met diagnostic criteria for au tism based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview. There were several domains i n which this toddler with autism did not show impairments. In the areas of immediate memory for actions, working memory, response inhibition, and spee ch perception, this 1-year old with autism displayed no evidence of signifi cant impairment on the tests administered. This case study offers clues reg arding the nature of autism at its earliest stages. Understanding early dev elopment in autism will be important for developing early screening and dia gnostic tools.