Rehabilitation professionals working with students with disabilities and the families of those students face unique challenges in providing inclusive services to special education student populations. There needs to be a focus on adaptive teaching methods that provide quality experience for students with varying disabilities to promote student…

This paper reviews 20 studies that investigated the internal or external validity of various subtypes of autistic spectrum disorders. At least three groups could be distinguished from autism on clinical grounds: an Asperger syndrome subtype, and two atypical subtypes characterized by either low intelligence quotient or high intelligence quotient.…

The development of a new standardized investigator-based interview for use in the differential diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders is described, together with a diagnostic algorithm based on its use. The algorithm correctly identified 16 autistic individuals and none of the 16 nonautistic mentally handicapped subjects. (Author/DB)

This paper reviews whether Rett syndrome is a subtype of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). The paper analyzes internal and external diagnostic validity and discusses whether Rett syndrome is a neurological disorder or a mental disorder. The paper concludes that data support the idea of classifying Rett syndrome as a subtype of PDD.…

This paper provides a history of the development of the DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III, Revised) section on pervasive developmental disorders. It describes the process by which the text and criteria for "Autistic Disorder" and "Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" were decided and gives…

This essay notes the complexities inherent in classifying pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), especially when a single classification scheme is to be used for clinical, research, and administrative purposes. The paper considers principles of classification, symptomatology, the neuropsychiatric interface, the value of a multiaxial approach,…

Forty parents of children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder completed the Wing Subgroups Questionnaire, developed for subclassifying children into one of L. Wing's three hypothesized subgroups. Results indicated that the questionnaire has adequate external criterion-referenced validity, with similar subgroup ratings made by…

This study, involving 24 children or adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders, assessed 3 autism scales: Autism Behavior Checklist, Real Life Rating Scale, and Childhood Autism Rating Scale. The study analyzed interrater reliability, correlations between pairs of the three scales, diagnostic classification cutoff scores, and…

Special education is now an established part of public education in the United States--by law and by custom. However, it is still widely misunderstood and continues to be dogged by controversies related to such things as categorization, grouping, assessment, placement, funding, instruction, and a variety of legal issues. The purpose of this…