case study of an autistic child, birth to age 2

Patricia Kuhl also studies autism.

I don't think I can bear to read this, but the link is here:

Case Study of the Development of an Infant with Autism from Birth to Two Years of Age (pdf file)
Geraldine Dawson, Julie Osterling, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl

This paper was published in 2000, which is a mark of how removed I've become from the world of autism research. Dawson et al's paper had to have been a major event, because autism is essentially never diagnosed before the age of two.

I had followed her earlier research, which involved looking at family videotapes of babies who would go on to be diagnosed with autism. A lot of us were interested in this, because parents often say that their autistic child developed normally until around the age of 2, then "became" autistic; Dawson was looking for early and subtle signs of the disorder. I remember being confused by her findings, or perhaps by her take on her findings. I don't remember which.

Maybe I'll work up my nerve and take a look at this paper after all....