In this reflective conversation, Marianne Kuzujanakis, a pediatrician and homeschool educator to a profoundly gifted child, discusses her involvement with gifted kids, which began when she approached Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), a nonprofit gifted support organization. She became fully active in supporting the gifted after her…

The last 50 years have witnessed enormous strides in the measurement and classification of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. Debates about whether we should continue to depend upon a categorical nosology still continue, but we argue that, despite the absence of clear dividing lines between psychiatric disorders and normality and ubiquity…

Watters questions the universality of mental illness and warns of the harms that accompany the exportation of Western typologies to non-Western cultures. He is particularly concerned that these effects will be exacerbated by the upcoming revisions of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" ("DSM-V").…

The main purpose of psychiatric classifications should ultimately be of help in management of patients. Classifications do this indirectly. They help a clinician to think about a child's mental and behavioral problems, and accurately diagnose, and classify them. This in turn helps the clinician to communicate with other professionals, and devise a…

Argues against Freides' (1981) suggestion that symptom-based approaches to the diagnosis of childhood psychosis are outdated, suggesting that reorganization of the diagnostic process at this time or in the near future would be premature. (Author/MP)

Reviews literature on neuropsychological test batteries which suggests credibility of presumptions that deficits in psychological processes are responsible for learning problems in children who should otherwise be able to learn, and that these processing deficits are a reflection of biological-genetic factors. (Author/NB)

In the Netherlands, as in the United States, the introduction of the concept of "mental health" in education is closely related to the development of a network of child guidance clinics. The first of these was established in Amsterdam in 1928. However, a substantial movement to actively promote mental health did not come into existence…

Advises child psychiatrists to use personality disorder diagnoses sparingly; to be aware of the constraints on adaptability of normal variations of temperament; and to positively diagnose those rare pathological impairments of personality brought about by minimal cerebral dysfunction, schizoid traits, and traits of excessive shyness. (RH)

This article considers the complications met by behavioral and biological studies of dyslexia by the condition's phenotypic heterogeneity and lack of uniformly applied diagnostic criteria. It notes the increasingly powerful genetic technologies and statistical methodologies used to identify genomic locations for genes involved in this complex…

In this article, the author argues that there are so many different understandings and conceptualizations about what dyslexia is, or is not, that the term has become almost meaningless. The questioning of the value of the dyslexia concept turned into media headlines in the UK. The author accounts three key questions surrounding the debate about…

The issues raised by Jonker and Jonker-Bakker and Young et al (EC 601 187-188) illustrate a major controversy dividing the child abuse community, the alleged existence of a conspiracy of satanic, ritual, sexual abuse of children. No evidence is found to support claims that large numbers of babies and children are being sacrificed or abused in…

The growing dissatisfaction with current methods for rating affective symptoms in child and adolescent psychiatry necessitates the development of additional reliable methods of evaluating mood disorders. Reviews the limitations of self-report and interview assessment techniques as contrasted with observationally-based rating scales. (JPS)

Studies on the use of the Dexamethasone Suppression Test to detect depression are described, with special emphasis on use of the test with children, demented elderly persons, and mentally retarded persons. (Author/JDD)

In its present form, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale lends itself to the selection of instructional strategies in reading for children with learning problems. The data on cognitive skills obtained provide important insight into cognitive strengths and weaknesses that may be related to academic functioning. (JPS)

Oppositional defiant disorder is an individual diagnosis given commonly to children and adolescents who exhibit a pattern of noncompliant and defiant behaviors. Some children's temperament, behaviors, and interpersonal style merit this diagnosis. Other children, however, exhibit behaviors consistent with this diagnosis within the context of their…