The photograph on the cover of this book was taken by Jane Bown at The Lindens, a school in Surrey for children with learning disabilities, in March 1966. The school was one of the earliest institutions to have a specific focus on the education of children with autism, taking its first autistic student in 1960. The development of special education at The Lindens parallels the establishment of the National Autistic Society, itself formed in 1962, initially as the Society for Psychotic Children. The photograph comes, then, from an early moment in the proper appreciation of the nature of autism as a distinct condition. Two girls are on a rudimentary seesaw or swing boat, probably used in the school to help children interact with one another. From their positions the girls seem to be at rest, though it is possible they are moving. They seem to be displaying no awareness of each other; the girl on the left has her forehead on her knees while the girl on the right appears to have her whole head covered, apparently resting it on the metal frame of the swing boat.

The choice to use the photograph was not an easy one; the very concept of an appropriate cover for a topic such as the representation of autism (or indeed any disability) is complex. Many, if not most, covers of books dealing with issues of disability or exceptionality feature abstract designs, attractive patterns that might point to the text's seriousness or that seek to engage its audience through the use of specific colours.