People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities have poorer health and face unique barriers to health care compared to people without disabilities. These health disparities can be partially attributed to physicians' limited knowledge about caring for patients with developmental disabilities. The purpose of this…

The pamphlet discusses several puzzling disorders of childhood, including autism, atypical personality development (childhood psychosis), psychosocial dwarfism, and Tourette's syndrome. Psychosocial dwarfism is said to be characterized by a marked reduction in physical development and by immaturity in behavior, while Tourette's syndrome involves…

By watching and responding to the way a shill answered "yes-no" questions about food items, a developmentally delayed preschool boy greatly improved over his poor base-line "yes-no" answers to these same items. He was also able to give correct answers subsequently during generalization probe sessions. (PS)

Reviews evidence on biological etiology of autism and other pervasive developmental deviations, stressing necessity for providing early and accurate diagnosis for family. Discusses implications of downplaying individual pathology and concentrating on parental or family dysfunction. Presents components of psychoeducational model for diagnosis and…

Discusses the human trait of attempting to read minds in an attempt to make sense of the actions of others. The term Mindblind comes from the fact that this is difficult for people with autism to do. Mindreading appears to be encoded in the genes and adaptive. (PVD)

This document contains the proceedings from the National Conference on Developmental Disabilities and Gerontology, a conference designed to develop guidelines for program development on national, state, and local levels; develop and disseminate a proceedings publication; and provide an interface between professionals working at national, state,…

Science Monographs, published by the National Institute of Mental Health, are book-length, integrative state-of-the-art reviews, critical evaluations of findings, or program assessments of current research on topics related to the NIMH mandate. This set of articles concentrate on mental illness in the family. "Depression and Low-Income,…