The Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders

2 Charts of 200 children who were diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder were reviewed. The goal of the review was to reveal patterns in presenting symptoms, underlying processing difficulties, early development, and response to intervention in order to generate hypotheses for future studies. The chart review suggests that a number of children with autistic spectrum diagnoses are, with an appropriate intervention program, capable of empathy, affective reciprocity, creative thinking, and healthy peer relationships; that an intervention approach that focuses on individual differences, developmental level, and affective interaction may be especially promising; and that there are different underlying processing patterns with a difficulty in connecting affect and sequencing capacities as a possible common denominator. It also suggests that there is an early marker, the difficulty in engaging in complex purposeful gestural communication, and that contrary to traditional beliefs, a significant number of children may have relatively better functioning in the first year with a regression in the second and third years. This review also suggests that difficulties with relating and intimacy are often secondary to underlying processing disturbances. Many of the children can become quite loving and caring, thoughtful and creative, suggesting a need to change the criteria for diagnosing these disorders