A study obtained the ratings of parents, teachers, and youth for 16 adolescent girls who had been treated in a psychiatric hospital and 16 controls, for total behavior problems and competence. Only parents identified their hospitalized daughters as severely clinically disturbed and in need of mental health services. (Author/CR)

A comparison of the reading performance of 30 second-graders with learning disabilities and 30 controls found all but three of 10 subtests of the Woodcock Diagnostic Reading Battery produced significant differences between groups. The three subtests that did not reach significance were Oral Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension, and Memory for…

A study examined comorbidity of the five federal definition characteristics among 1,352 students already identified as having emotional disturbance (ED). The extent of comorbidity of ED characteristics was related to the criterion for deviance and to each of the selected student variables, particularly school level and educational placement.…

This study examined the validity and internal and interrater reliability of the Wing Subgroups Questionnaire, an assessment that classifies children with autism into subtypes. Subjects were 42 students (ages 5 to 22) enrolled in multihandicapped special education classrooms. Findings support the reliability and validity of the questionnaire for…

Compared accuracy of an actuarial procedure for the prediction of community violence by patients with mental illnesses to accuracy of clinicians' concern ratings of patient violence. Data came from a study of 357 pairs of patients seen in a psychiatric emergency room. Actuarial predictions based only on patients' histories of violence were more…

This study analyzed the performance of 30 children (ages 9-11) with central auditory processing disorders (CAPD), to test the validity of the Auditory Continuous Performance Test in differentiating between CAPD with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Results indicated limited potential of the test in the differential…

A study explored maternal response to the diagnosis of mental retardation in children using a focus group of six mothers. Findings identified four themes: differences between antenatal and postnatal diagnosis; a cycle of bereavement; issues relating to causation; and examples of poor interpersonal skills from medical personnel. (Contains…

Discusses the difficulty in validating central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) as a diagnostic label in school-aged children, and examines the extent to which reading, language, and attention disorders in school-aged children involve perceptual dysfunctions limited to a single sensory modality. Multimodal perceptual testing for diagnosis is…

A population-based epidemiological study on visual and hearing impairment was planned in a random sample of 2100 clients, drawn from a base population of 9012 users of Dutch residential and day-care intellectual disability (ID) services with the whole range of IDs. Stratification was applied for age 50 years and over and Down syndrome. Visual and…

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to empirically evaluate the effects of a 21-day wilderness therapy program (WT) on the defense styles, perceived psychosocial stressors (expressed concerns), dysfunctional personality patterns, clinical syndromes, and maladaptive behaviors of 109 troubled adolescents, as measured by the Defense Style…

The role of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) has developed considerably over the last 10 years given the medical and technological advances in life-sustaining procedures. Over time, children born with congenital, surgical, or "medically fragile" conditions have become mainstreamed into regular school-based settings, thus extending…

Background: The effectiveness of parent management training (PMT) as a treatment for child behaviour problems is reduced by high attrition rates. One difficulty with engaging mothers is that, by definition, PMT is directed at the parent, yet many parents believe the "cause" of the problem lies within the child. Hence the model of therapy offered…

Background: Although DSM-IV requires symptoms in three criterion domains for a diagnosis of autistic disorder, the extent to which those domains are phenotypically independent is an unanswered and important question. The identification of "endophenotypes" of the autistic syndrome may be very useful for genetic and neurobiologic studies of autism,…

Objective: Prospective study of well children at risk of bipolarity to identify the frequency and pattern of potentially prodromal symptoms/behaviors for bipolar disorder type I (BPI) disorder. Method: A total of 110 at-risk children with a BPI parent and 112 children with well parents were studied. Ten-year data collection used structured and…

Forty-nine 2 years olds with social and language characteristics suggestive of autism were identified by community professionals and screening tools, then given a diagnostic assessment and reexamined at age 4 1/2. Agreement between autism clinic and screenings was high, with 88% receiving a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. The children were lower…