Michael Rutter’s research while affiliated with WWF United Kingdom and other places

Patterns of parent-child interaction and family functioning were systematically examined in well-matched groups of 15 autistic and 14 dysphasic children. The measures used included the Douglas 24-hour standard day analysis, the Brown and Rutter interview measure of positive interaction, the Ittleson scales (based on a four- to six-hour period of home observation, specially developed time-sampled measures of observed mother-child interaction at home), and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The findings from all measures agreed in showing that family life and interaction patterns were closely similar in the two groups. The results were compared with those of previous investigations; we concluded that autism is most unlikely to be due to abnormal psychogenic influences in the family.

Autistic boys were systematically compared with an age and I.Q. matched sample of developmental 'dysphasic' boys on reliable measures of syntax and language functions. The groups did not differ on syntactical usage as determined by morphological, transformational and phrase structure rules. However, autistic children were significantly less likely to make spontaneous remarks and significantly more likely to use delayed echoes, thinking aloud/action accompaniments and inappropriate echoes of themselves. It is concluded that the autistic child's language deviance is not just a reflection of language impairment.

In his original description of the syndrome of infantile autism, Kanner (1943) commented that the parents tended to be highly intelligent obsessive people interested in abstractions and lacking real human warmth. He also observed that: “the children’s aloneness from the beginning of life makes it difficult to attribute the whole picture exclusively to the type of the early parental relations.” In the years that followed, numerous other writers drew attention to supposed abnormalities in this or that aspect of family functioning or early life experiences. A wide variety of theoretical formulations were proposed to suggest how psychogenic factors might have caused autism. At first, there were many suggestions that autism usually arises entirely on a psychogenic basis. However, evidence accumulated on the presence of biological abnormalities of various kinds in many autistic children, and few people today maintain an exclusively psychogenic position.

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.

This paper tests various hypotheses about deviance in the communication of mothers to their autistic children. The language of mothers of 13 autistic boys is compared to the language of mothers of 13 boys with developmental receptive dysphasia. The two groups of boys are of similar age, nonverbal intelligence, and language level. The language samples come from hour-long taped interactions between the mothers and their children in their homes. Aspects of maternal communication that are examined include: the amount of language used, the frequency usage of different types of utterances, the syntactic complexity of utterances, the grammaticality of utterances, the clarity of communication, and the tones of voice used. No differences were found between the two groups of mothers in level of language usage, pattern of functional interaction, or in overall clarity of communication. In conclusion, the findings of this study provide no support for the suggestion that autism is due wholly or in part to deviant patterns of mother-child communication.

A psychometric, observational, and interview study was undertaken with 47 boys, aged 4 1/2 to 10 years, with nonverbal IQs of 70+ and a severe developmental disorder of language comprehension. Separate discriminant function analyses, based on behavioral, language, or cognitive features, showed little overlap between clinically defined autistic and dysphasic subgroups. Moreover, the discrimination could be made as clearly on language or cognitive characteristics as on social or behavioral critera. Language abnormalities and behavioral features also intercorrelated within the autistic subgroup. It is concluded that autism and dysphasia differ in important ways and that a cognitive deficit is an essential part of the syndrome of autism.

This paper tests various hypotheses about deviance in the communication of mothers to their autistic children. The language of mothers of 13 autistic boys is compared to the language of mothers of 13 boys with developmental receptive dysphasia. The two groups of boys are of similar age, nonverbal intelligence, and language level. The language samples come from hour-long taped interactions between the mothers and their children in their homes. Aspects of maternal communication that are examined include: the amount of language used, the frequency usage of different types of utterances, the syntactic complexity of utterances, the grammaticality of utterances, the clarity of communication, and the tones of voice used. No differences were found between the two groups of mothers in level of language usage, pattern of functional interaction, or in overall clarity of communication. In conclusion, the findings of this study provide nosupport for the suggestion that autism is due wholly or in part to deviant patterns of mother-child communication.

This paper reports a method of analysing speech and language in young children which encompasses both level of development and also abnormalities in usage. It was developed initially for the purpose of (1) measuring changes in the language usage of autistic children as a result of a treatment programme (Howlin et al, 1973a Hemsley et al, 7977); (2) comparing the language characteristics of autistic and developmental “dysphasic” children Bartak et al, 1975; Rutter, 1976; Cantwell et al, 1977); and (3) comparing the language of young normal children with that of both these language disordered groups. Nevertheless, the method is designed to be usable for the study of any group of children, normal or abnormal, in the early and middle stages of language development.

Autistic children with an IQ below 70 and with an IQ above 70 were systematically compared. The two groups differed somewhat in the pattern of symptoms, but were closely similar in terms of the main phenomena specifically associated with autism. However, the low IQ and high IQ autistic children differed more substantially in terms of other symptoms such as self-injury and stereotypies and there were major differences in outcome. The possibility that the nature of the autistic disorder may differ according to the presence or absence of associated mental retardation needs to be taken into account in planning studies of etiology.

Autistic children with an IQ below 70 and with an IQ above 70 were systematically compared. The two groups differed somewhat in the pattern of symptoms, but were closely similar in terms of the main phenomena specifically associated with autism. However, the low IQ and high IQ autistic children differed more substantially in terms of other symptoms such as self-injury and stereotypies and there were major differences in outcome. The possibility that the nature of the autistic disorder may differ according to the presence or absence of associated mental retardation needs to be taken into account in planning studies of etiology.