In addition to the triad of impairments experienced by children and adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), they often present with symptoms of psychiatric disorders. To date, very few studies have examined gender differences in regards to psychiatric symptoms in children and adolescents diagnosed with an ASD. Thus, the current…

Comorbid psychopathology and challenging behaviors often occur among persons with developmental disabilities. However, little attention to this issue has been reported in young children. In this study, individuals 17 through 36 months of age with varying diagnoses, such as intellectual disability, developmental delay, and Down syndrome, among…

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…

Behavioral symptoms of comorbid psychopathology of 651 children 17-37 months of age who were at risk for developmental disabilities were studied using the BISCUIT-Part 2. In Study 1, norms and cutoff scores were established for this new scale on this sample. In Study 2, frequency of response on the 52 items measured was reported. Problems in…

Feeding and mealtime behavior problems are commonly observed among individuals with developmental disabilities. These problems include, but are not limited to, food refusal, food selectivity, mealtime aggression, rumination, pica, and insufficient feeding skills. Difficulties of this type can be associated with life-threatening consequences of…

Two experiments involving 143 and 1,480 individuals with severe and profound mental retardation found that persons with profound mental retardation were more likely to evince sterotypies or self-injury (SIB) compared to their severely impaired counterparts. Those with stereotypies were more likely to present with autism, organicity, and eating…

This study represents the first to assess whether a relationship between manic symptoms and feeding/mealtime behavior problems exists in individuals with ID. Participants were compared across three groups (manic, non-manic psychiatrically impaired, and controls) on the diagnostic assessment for the severely handicapped-revised (DASH-II) and young…