In the review there are given briefly the main marks of development of clinical and psychological investigations of infantile autism since the middle of 20th century. Some paragraphs of the review are devoted to the developmental causes, age dynamics and prediction of the development, difficulties of the differential diagnosis of autistic disorders.

The article describes disorders of different sides of psychical development in autism, which have been presented in the researches in the last 50 years. There are noted basal energy insufficiency, activity disorders and extraordinary sensitivity of autistic children to the environment al irritants. Disorders in the cognitive sphere and in the social development, regulatory dysfunctions in autism, their relations with basal deficiency are analysed in detail.

The holistic picture of psychical development disorder of a child with autism is considered in the article, indissolubility of development difficulties and sides of psychics are emphasized. The emphasis made on the simplified and incorrect idea about “reduced needs in communication” of a child with autism. Systematic disorder of psychic development is connected with profound distortion of sense interrelations with the environment.

The article grounds the division of children with autism into four groups depending on behavior models which differ in their system characteristics. The groups of autism are described in detail including profound autism and low functioning autism.

The article analyses the specificity of the origin of fears and their fixation in children with disorders of autistic spectrum in comparison with normally developing children. Theу are described in accordance with the culture the ways of overcoming of frightening impressions in children of the early age in case of normal affective development. There are presented at length the fears features in the early age children of the four groups of the autistic development, according to Nikolskaya classification. The article bases the ways of fears softening as a part of the integral system of special impacts directed at the autistic child interaction with the environment, increasing of his activity and stamina in contacting with the world.

The article analyses the specificity of the origin of fears and their fixation in children with disorders of autistic spectrum in comparison with normally developing children. Theу are described in accordance with the culture the ways of overcoming of frightening impressions in children of the early age in case of normal affective development. There are presented at length the fears features in the early age children of the four groups of the autistic development, according to Nikolskaya classification. The article bases the ways of fears softening as a part of the integral system of special impacts directed at the autistic child interaction with the environment, increasing of his activity and stamina in contacting with the world.