One of the most historically significant papers in child psychiatry was published in 1943 by Leo Kanner. In Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact, Kanner brilliantly detailed a syndrome, which he later called early infantile autism, encompassing the following signs and symptoms: inability to relate themselves in the ordinary way to people and situations-extreme autistic aloneness-failure to assume at any time an anticipatory posture preparatory to being picked up--refusal of food to some degree-an obsessive desire for maintenance of sameness-repetitiously monotonous noises and mo-