The paper offers guidelines for counseling parents of children diagnosed as autistic. Initial sections urge caution on the establishment of such a diagnosis, noting widespread careless use of the term. Changes in thinking about autism are traced from its consideration as a psychogenic emotional disorder to a developmental disorder with cognitive…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC-R) Freedom from Distractibility (FFD) factor and other neurocognitive measures were examined as to their discriminative validity in diagnosing children with Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity (ADD/H), ADD/H children with concurrent Conduct Disorder, and children comprising a clinic…

Mental health professionals have often reported differences in the psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses of adopted and nonadopted children and adolescents. Since psychiatric diagnoses are influenced by the judgments of the professionals who assign them, it is possible that the differences observed between adopted and nonadopted psychiatric patients…

The problem of misplacement of students in school classrooms is reviewed and some cases illustrating misplacement and/or misdiagnosis of handicapped children are outlined. (IM)

The Dental Diagnostic Simulation (DDS) System provides an alternative to simulation systems which represent diagnostic case studies of relatively limited scope. It may be used to generate simulated case studies in all of the dental specialty areas with case materials progressing through the gamut of the diagnostic process. The generation of a…

The services and activities performed by child psychiatrists and child psychologists who engage in private practice are described. Three types of psychotherapy (child focused, family focused, and marital discord focused) are presented as representation of the approaches utilized by professionals who work with children and families. A critique of…

Traditional diagnosis procedures for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may lead to over-diagnosis and are fraught with complications because the target behavioral symptoms are found in a variety of other disorders. Traditional treatments consisting of powerful side effect laden psychostimulant drugs…

Describes diagnostic perspectives for viewing dysfunctional families. Presents three general types of models (process, structural, and historical) and organized them along a continuum from most descriptive to most inferential. Presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, October-November…

Summarizes highlights of a discussion by 12 leaders in the field of child sexual abuse concerning the technical conduct of the child-sexual-abuse medical examination. (DB)

Summarizes highlights of a discussion by 13 leaders in the field of child sexual abuse concerning normal anogenital anatomy in relation to medical evaluation for child sexual abuse. (DB)

SoonerStart is a collaborative interagency effort that provides services to approximately 2,000 developmentally delayed infants and toddlers in Oklahoma. In rural north-central Oklahoma, the early intervention team consists of a regional coordinator, resource coordinator (case manager), child development specialist (lead clinician), nurse, speech…

The article discusses the measurement of brain electrical activity and, in particular, the examination of electroencephalographic (EEG) data, as providing useful information in the diagnosis of dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Topographic imaging of EEG (TIE) is described as a procedure which provides functional data at comparatively low…

The increasing age of the American population and the current emphasis on cost containment in health care make the 1980s an ideal time for building bridges to span the health care needs of elderly persons in acute care and long-term care. While hospitals often discharge patients to nursing homes as an intermediate step between hospitalization and…

The clinical usefulness of various empirically derived suicide potential rating scales has been questioned by several suicidologists. This study used actual case histories in an attempt to anchor suicide risk ratings. Thirty-three brief case histories of suicidal patients were given to 19 experienced crisis workers for seven-point ratings of…

Suicide prevention techniques, from a clinical perspective, need to be as diversified as the population they serve. In certain special population groups, suicide has reached epidemic proportions, and there is a significant public health need for specific suicide prevention strategies. Special populations need to be identified and their suicide…