Attachment in Autism and Other Developmental Disorders

Thirty-six children ages 30 to 63 months diagnosed as autistic or as having Atypical Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Developmental Language Disorder, and Mental Retardation were videotaped with their mothers using a modification of the strange situation and coding devised by Ainsworth et al. (1978). Autistic and atypical children's manifested attachment behavior is not significantly different from the attachment behavior normal children display at a younger age. A majority (64%) of the developmentally disordered children manifest some behavior change upon separation, whereas almost half (44%) display negative mood change. Quality of attachment did not correlate with diagnosis, developmental quotients, mood change, or behavior change on separation in all the developmentally disordered group. Affective display on separation tended to correlate with security of attachment, although this did not reach statistical significance.