Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are well-known for engagement in challenging behaviors. Unfortunately, due to its absence as a criterion for diagnosis in the "DSM-IV-TR", little attention has been paid to the endorsement rates of such behaviors. However, a recently developed measure to assist in the diagnosis of infants and toddlers…

Pica is a very serious and often life threatening problem which occurs largely in persons with developmental disabilities. The topic has received sporadic attention from researchers for several decades. This paper reviews definitions, diagnostic implications, causes, prevalence, and assessment methods that have been described in the research…

As the "Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition" ("BASC-2") is often used to aid in diagnosis it is important to discern how children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) score on the "BASC-2" compared to typically developing controls. This study compared scores of typically developing…

Asperger's syndrome has gained tremendous recognition and popularity in the last 20 years. However, controversy around the nature of the disorder, whether it is distinct from high functioning autism, and whether it can be reliably and validly diagnosed has continued throughout this period unabated. Fortunately, there has been a strong tradition of…

An area of research with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which has received a considerable amount of attention recently is early diagnosis. This phenomenon is due largely to encouraging results from intensive intervention programs for children at very young ages. While five types of ASD exist, efforts in this area have focused almost exclusively…

Rett Syndrome is one of the least commonly occurring autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but certainly one of the most devastating. A genetic profile has been identified, but checklists still have an important role for prescreening, especially before expensive genetic testing, and to provide precise strengths and weaknesses with respect to the core…

Diagnosing autism and PDD-NOS at very early ages has become a major priority in the field of mental health. More recently, researchers have also come to realize the importance of identifying co-occurring conditions of psychopathology in this population. In the present study, 309 children between 17 and 37 months of age who had been identified as…

A study of 233 individuals with severe mental retardation examined the validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II) through correlation with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC). DASH-II as a whole was found to have a high degree of convergent validity with the ABC total score. (CR)

A study tested the validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II) for determining the presence of mania (bipolar disorder) in 22 individuals with severe mental retardation. Results found the mania subscale to be internally consistent and able to be used to classify manic and control subjects accurately. (Author/CR)