Treasured object use--a cognitive and developmental marker

A semistructured telephone interview designed to elicit data concerning the history of the treasured object and the history of attachment to other objects after age 2 was conducted with mothers of 54 developmentally disordered patients (21 mentally retarded, 33 pervasive developmental disordered). Results indicated a dramatically reduced frequency of treasured objects use among this population that is independent of both diagnosis and IQ. The proportion of developmentally disordered children who ever (after age 2) form an object attachment is also significantly reduced and does vary with both diagnosis and IQ. The type of object to which an attachment is formed differs according to diagnosis.