Being Born Autistic and the Forming of the Interpersonal World

Early Autism is presented as a dynamic disorder of early infancy, marked by disruption to the sensory-motor capacity for making affective contact and later, the development of an atypical social communicative style - making the child incomprehensible to others. Drawing on our own group - and others' research - we review how some core features of early autism unfold in early development, focusing on: 1) preferential attention for objects over people which affects the development of an infant's intersubjectivity and paves the way for restricted interests; 2) reduced motor variability which results in increased repetitive movements of hands and fingers, hindering their use for affective communication; 3) modification of parent-child interaction style as an early sign - and potential modifier - of the atypical formation of the interpersonal world of the autistic infant.