Various theorists have argued for the importance of a developmental approach to studying typical development (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; Lerner, 1996; Lerner & Hood, 1986; Masten & Cicchetti, 2010; Overton, 2014; Overton & Lerner, 2012, 2014), and there are reasons to believe that this issue is even more critical to the study of…

This paper charted the cognitive and behavioural profiles from toddlerhood to middle childhood in 48 children diagnosed with ASD at 24 months. The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) was administered at 24- and 48-months and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) at school age. Autism severity was derived using The Autism…

Given that early caregiver concerns may be different for children who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder versus another developmental disability, early caregiver concerns may differ for girls. Using a community-based sample of children (n = 241), we examined the extent to which gender differences may be related to caregiver…

This article briefly reviews the history of intellectual assessment with children and youth in Japan, as well as current practices and future directions. The history of intelligence test use in Japan began in the early 20th century. Since the 21st century, three major intelligence tests, namely, the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, the Kaufman…

For three decades after Leo Kanner's first clinical description, research progress in understanding and treating autism was minimal but since the late 1960s the growth of autism discoveries has been exponential, with a remarkable number of new findings published over the past two decades, in particular. These advances were made possible first by…

Aggression can present as a significant problem behavior in individuals with a diagnosis of developmental disability. Much research has focused on the prevalence of aggression in individuals with varying degrees of severity of intellectual disability (AD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and co-morbidity of ID and ASD. Research has also focused on…

Performance on a battery of cognitive measures was analyzed in terms of hand preference for 62 children (5-17 years old) with Pervasive Developmental Disorders including autism. There was a clear (though nonsignificant) trend on all tests for left-handers to have higher scores than right-handers. Mixed-hand preference Ss demonstrated the lowest…

This study sought to differentiate pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) from similar nonautistic disorders on the basis of a cognitive deficit, theory of mind (ToM), which is the ability to infer mental states in others, a deficit highly prevalent in autism, a disorder similar to PDDNOS. Results suggest that children…

The study of affect comprehension in 15 children with pervasive developmental disorders (ages 7-10) and normal children matched for mental age found that the disabled children were impaired on affect matching compared to the controls and were impaired on face and affect matching relative to their own performance on object matching. (Author/DB)

This newsletter issue presents five articles addressing intervention with infants and toddlers having pervasive developmental disabilities. The first article is by Stanley I. Greenspan and is titled "Reconsidering the Diagnosis and Treatment of Very Young Children with Autistic Spectrum or Pervasive Developmental Disorder." This article…

The last 25 years have witnessed an explosion of research at the intersection of typical language development and child language disorders. A pioneer in bringing these fields of study together is Robin S. Chapman, Emerita, University of Wisconsin. This contributed volume honors her with chapters written by former students and colleagues, who track…