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DISCUSSION: Dr. Paul Kay discussed issues involved in patients' nonverbal communication to their children. He cited authors who have contributed analytic studies to this theme, including Melitta Sperling and Hellman. He felt that Dr. Corbin's paper touched on problems concerning the child's congenital equipment and tendencies, and the effect of these on the mother-child interaction at various stages of development. He questioned, for example, whether there was an excessive disposition in the discussed child to react to anal-erotic stimuli because of heightened physiological needs. He also felt that it would be worth-while elaborating on the role of sensory elements in nonverbal motor communications. Dr. Kay described his work with an autistic child of three in whom he perceived adaptive and developmental functions in the area of nonverbal motor behavior. He described in some detail her developing mastery of objects in his office, using the functions of perception and motility as well as memory and thinking. This behavior preceded both direct contact with the therapist and verbal contact with the object world since the child had not used words at all in this phase of her development. The therapist's presence could be tolerated only for limited periods and as a need-satisfying object. Dr. Kay related this child's periods of withdrawal from him to the mother's unspoken affects and wishes. He felt that the child's motor communications with his 'animated' possessions kept alive her primitive attachment to him and also developed basic ego functions, such as the perception and testing of inner and outer reality, identification, thinking, displacement, and the awareness that a human relationship can be satisfying.